THE COSMIC GODS
The gods which personify the sun and sky stand apart in their essential
idea from those already described, although they were largely mixed and
combined with other classes of gods. So much did this mixture pervade
all the later views that some writers have seen nothing but varying
forms of sun-worship in Egyptian religion. It will have been noticed
however in the previous chapters what a large body of theology was
entirely apart from the sun-worship, while here we treat the latter as
separate from the other elements with which it was more or less
combined.
_Ra_ was the great sun-god, to whom every king pledged himself, by
adopting on his accession a motto-title embodying the god's name, such
as _Ra-men-kau_, 'Ra established the kas,' _Ra-sehotep-ab_, 'Ra
satisfies the heart,' _Ra-neb-maat_, 'Ra is the lord of truth'; and
these titles were those by {51} which the king was best known ever
after. This devotion was not primitive, but began in the fourth
dynasty, and was established by the fifth dynasty being called sons of
Ra, and every later king having the title 'son of Ra' before his name.
The obelisk was the emblem of Ra, and in the fifth dynasty a great
obelisk temple was built in his honour at Abusir, followed also by
others. Heliopolis was the centre of his worship, where Senusert I, in
the twelfth dynasty, rebuilt the temple and erected the obelisks, one
of which is still standing. But Ra was preceded there by another
sun-god Atmu, who was the true god of the nome; and Ra, though
worshipped throughout the land, was not the aboriginal god of any city.
In Heliopolis he was attached to Atmu, at Thebes attached to Amen.
These facts point to Ra having been introduced into Egypt by a
conquering people, after the theologic settlement of the whole land.
There are many suggestions that the Ra worshippers came in from Asia,
and established their rule at Heliopolis. The title of the ruler of
that place was the _heq_, a Semitic title; and the _heq_ sceptre was
the sacred treasure of the temple. The 'spirits of Heliopolis' were
specially honoured, an idea more Babylonian than Egyptian. This city
was a centre of literary {52} learning and of theologic theorising
which was unknown elsewhere in Egypt, but familiar in Mesopotamia. A
conical stone was the embodiment of the god at Heliopolis, as in Syria.
_On_, the native name of Heliopolis, occurs twice in Syria, as well as
other cities named Heliopolis there in later times. The view of an
early Semitic principate of Heliopolis, before the dynastic age, would
unify all of these facts: and the advance of Ra worship in the fifth
dynasty would be due to a revival of the influence of the eastern Delta
at that time.
The form of Ra most free from admixture is that of the disk of the sun,
sometimes figured between two hills at rising, sometimes between two
wings, sometimes in the boat in which it floated on the celestial ocean
across the sky. The winged disk has almost always two cobra serpents
attached to it, and often two rams' horns; the meaning of the whole
combination is that Ra protects and preserves, like the vulture
brooding over its young, destroys like the cobra, and creates like the
ram. This is seen by the modification where it is placed over a king's
head, when the destructive cobra is omitted, and the wings are folded
together as embracing and protecting the king.
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This disk form is connected with the hawk-god, by being placed over the
head of the hawk; and this in turn is connected with the human form by
the disc resting on the hawk-headed man, which is one of the most usual
types of Ra. The god is but seldom shown as being purely human, except
when identified with other gods, such as Atmu, Horus, or Amon.
The worship of Ra outshone all others in the nineteenth dynasty.
United to the god of Thebes as Amon Ra, he became 'king of the gods';
and the view that the soul joined Ra in his journey through the hours
of the night absorbed all other views, which only became sections of
this whole (see chap. xi). By the Greek times this belief seems to
have largely given place to others, and it had practically vanished in
the early Christian age.
+Atmu+ (Tum) was the original god of Heliopolis and the Delta side,
round to the gulf of Suez, which formerly reached up to Ismailiyeh.
How far his nature as the setting sun was the result of his being
identified with Ra, is not clear. It may be that he was simply a
creator-god, and that the introduction of Ra led to his being unified
with him. Those who take the view that the names of gods are connected
with tribes, as {54} Set and Suti, Anuke and Anak, might well claim
that Atmu or Atum belonged to the land of Aduma or Etham.
+Khepera+ has no local importance, but is named as the morning sun. He
was worshipped about the time of the nineteenth dynasty.
+Aten+ was a conception of the sun entirely different to Ra. No human
or animal form was ever attached to it; and the adoration of the
physical power and action of the sun was the sole devotion. So far as
we can trace, it was a worship entirely apart, and different from every
other type of religion in Egypt; and the partial information that we
have about it does not, so far, show a single flaw in a purely
scientific conception of the source of all life and power upon earth.
The Aten was the only instance of a 'jealous god' in Egypt, and this
worship was exclusive of all others, and claims universality. There
are traces of it shortly before Amonhotep in. He showed some devotion
to it, and it was his son who took the name of Akhenaten, 'the glory of
the Aten,' and tried to enforce this as the sole worship of Egypt. But
it fell immediately after, and is lost in the next dynasty. The sun is
represented as radiating its beams on all things, and every beam ends
in a hand which imparts life and power to {55} the king and to all
else. In the hymn to the Aten the universal scope of this power is
proclaimed as the source of all life and action, and every land and
people are subject to it, and owe to it their existence and their
allegiance. No such grand theology had ever appeared in the world
before, so far as we know; and it is the forerunner of the later
monotheist religions, while it is even more abstract and impersonal,
and may well rank as a scientific theism.
+Anher+ was the local god of Thinis in Upper Egypt, and Sebennytos in
the Delta, a human sun-god. His name is a mere epithet, 'he who goes
in heaven'; and it may well be that this was only a title of Ra, who
was thus worshipped at these places.
+Sopdu+ was the god of the eastern desert, and he was identified with
the cone of glowing zodiacal light which precedes the sunrise. His
emblem was a mummified hawk, or a human figure.
+Nut+, the embodiment of heaven, is shown as a female figure dotted
over with stars. She was not worshipped nor did she belong to any one
place, but was a cosmogonic idea.
+Seb+, the embodiment of the earth, is figured as lying on the ground
while Nut bends over him. He was the 'prince of the gods,' the power
that {56} went before all the later gods, the superseded Saturn of
Egyptian theology. He is rarely mentioned, and no temples were
dedicated to him, but he appears in the cosmic mythology. It seems,
from their positions, that very possibly Seb and Nut were the primaeval
gods of the aborigines of Hottentot type, before the Osiris worshippers
of European type ever entered the Nile valley.
+Shu+ was the god of space, who lifted up Nut from off the body of Seb.
He was often represented, especially in late amulets; possibly it was
believed that he would likewise raise up the body of the deceased from
earth to heaven. His figure is entirely human, and he kneels on one
knee with both hands lifted above his head. He was regarded as the
father of Seb, the earth having been formed from space or chaos. His
emblem was the ostrich feather, the lightest and most voluminous object.
+Hapi+, the Nile, must also be placed with Nature-gods. He is figured
as a man, or two men for the Upper and Lower Niles, holding a tray of
produce of the land, and having large female breasts as being the
nourisher of the valley. A favourite group consists of the two Nile
figures tying the plants of Upper and Lower Egypt around the {57}
emblem of union. He was worshipped at Nilopolis, and also at the
shrines which marked the boating stages, about a hundred in number all
along the river. Festivals were held at the rising of the Nile, like
those still kept up at various stages of the inundation. Hymns in
honour of the river attribute all prosperity and good to its benefits.
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