THE FOREIGN GODS
Besides the incorporation into purely Egyptian usage of all the gods
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.
+B[=e]s+, 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 B[=e]s {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 (=Dinka tribe?) were brought as curiosities to
Egypt. B[=e]s was often figured as dancing with a tambourine; he was
the god 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 goddess, was
originally a female form of B[=e]s.
+Dedun+ was a Nubian god, who appears to have been a creative
earth-god. He was unified with Ptah, and is often named in the
nineteenth dynasty.
+Sati+ was a goddess of the cataract region, similar to Hathor, with
cow's horns. She is called queen of the gods, and seems to have been
the great deity of a frontier tribe.
+Anqet+ was the goddess of the cataract island of Seheyl, and is
figured wearing a high crown of feathers.
+Sutekh+ must not be confounded with the purely Egyptian god Set or
Setesh, though the two were identified. Probably they were one in {64}
prehistoric ages; but Set was the god known to the Egyptians, while
Sutekh was the god of the Hittites from Armenia, where he was
worshipped in their home cities.
+Baal+ was another Syrian god also identified with Set, and sometimes
combined with Mentu as a war-god in the nineteenth dynasty, when Syrian
ideas prevailed so largely in Egypt.
+Reshpu+, or +Reseph+, was occasionally worshipped as a war-god in the
Syrianised age; but no statues or temples are known to him or to Baal.
+Anta+, or +Anaitis+, was a goddess of the Hittites, 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 goddess, who
was worshipped 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 goddess 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 Hittite goddesses.
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Figures of foreign goddesses are often found in Egypt; they are of
pottery, coarsely made, nude, and with the breasts held in the hands.
They probably represent Ashtaroth.
We may also here mention some theories about the foreign connections of
the Egyptian gods. The early Sumerians of Babylonia worshipped 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-goddess of
Southern Arabia; and the connection of this moon- and cow-goddess with
the similar Hathor of Egypt seems very probable. Ansar was another
Sumerian god, meaning 'the sky,' or the spirit world of the sky; and
this might have passed into Anhar, the sky-god, known both in Upper and
Lower Egypt. These connections are all with Sumerian gods, 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.
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