THE EGYPTIAN STORY OF THE CREATION
If we consider for a moment the vast amount of thought which the
Egyptian gave to the problems of the future life, and their deep-seated
belief in resurrection and immortality, we cannot fail to conclude that
he must have theorised deeply about the constitution of the heaven in
which he hoped to live everlastingly, and about its Maker. The
translations given in the preceding pages prove that the theologians of
Egypt were ready enough to describe heaven, and the life led by the
blessed there, and the powers and the attributes of the gods, but they
appear to have shrunk from writing down in a connected form their
beliefs concerning the Creation and the origin of the Creator. The
worshippers of each great god proclaimed him to be the Creator of All,
and every great town had its own local belief on the subject. According
to the Heliopolitans, Atem, or Tem, and at a later period Rā, was the
Creator; according to Memphite theology he was Ptah; according to the
Hermopolitans he was Thoth; and according to the Thebans he was Amen
(Ammon). In only one native Egyptian work up to the present has there
been discovered any connected account of the Creation, and the means by
which it was effected, namely, the British Museum Papyrus, No. 10,188.
This papyrus was written about 305 B.C., and is therefore of a
comparatively late date, but the subject matter of the works contained
in it is thousands of years older, and it is only _their_ forms which
are of a late date. The Story of the Creation is found in the last work
in the papyrus, which is called the "Book of overthrowing Āapep, the
Enemy of Rā, the Enemy of Un-Nefer" (_i.e._ Osiris). This work is a
liturgy, which was said at certain times of the day and night in the
great temple of Amen-Rā at Thebes, with the view of preventing the
monster Āapep from obstructing the sunrise. Āapep was supposed to lie in
wait for the sun daily just before sunrise, with the view of doing
battle with him and overthrowing him. When the Sun-god arrived at the
place where Āapep was, he first of all cast a spell upon the monster,
which rendered him helpless, and then he cast his fiery rays upon him,
which shrivelled him up, and the fire of the god consumed him entirely.
In the temple of Amen-Rā the priests recited the spells that were
supposed to help the Sun-god to burn up Āapep, and they burnt waxen
figures of the monster in specially prepared fires, and, uttering
curses, they trampled them under foot and defiled them. These spells and
burnings were also believed to break up rain clouds, and to scatter fog
and mist and to dissipate thunder-storms, and to help the sun to rise on
this world in a cloudless sky. Āapep was a form of Set, the god of evil
of every kind, and his allies were the "Red Fiends" and the "Black
Fiends," and every power of darkness. In the midst of the magical spells
of this papyrus we find two copies of the "Book of knowing how Rā came
into being, and of overthrowing Āapep." One copy is a little fuller than
the other, but they agree substantially. The words of this book are said
in the opening line to have been spoken by the god Nebertcher, _i.e._
the "Lord to the uttermost limit," or God Himself. The Egyptian
Christians, or Copts, in their religious writings use this name as an
equivalent of God Almighty, the Lord of All, the God of the Universe.
Nebertcher says: "I am the creator of what hath come into being. I
myself came into being under the form of the god Khepera. I came into
being under the form of Pautti (or, in primeval time), I formed myself
out of the primeval matter, I made myself out of the substance that was
in primeval time."[1] Nothing existed at that time except the great
primeval watery mass called NU, but in this there were the germs of
everything that came into being subsequently. There was no heaven, and
no earth, and the god found no place on which to stand; nothing, in
fact, existed except the god. He says, "I was alone." He first created
himself by uttering his own name as a word of power, and when this was
uttered his visible form appeared. He then uttered another kind of word
of power, and as a result of this his soul (_ba_) came into being, and
it worked in connection with his heart or mind (_ab_). Before every act
of creation Nebertcher, or his visible form Khepera, thought out what
form the thing to be created was to take, and when he had uttered its
name the thing itself appeared in heaven or earth. To fill the heaven,
or place where he lived, the god next produced from his body and its
shadow the two gods Shu and Tefnut. These with Nebertcher, or Khepera,
formed the first triad of gods, and the "one god became three," or, as
we should say, the one god had three aspects, each of which was quite
distinct from the other. The tradition of the begetting of Shu and
Tefnut is as old as the time of the pyramids, for it is mentioned in the
text of Pepi I, l. 466. The next act of creation resulted in the
emerging of the Eye of Nebertcher (later identified with Rā) from the
watery mass (NU), and light shone upon its waters. Shu and Tefnut then
united and they produced Keb, the Earth-god, and Nut, the Sky-goddess.
The text then refers to some calamity which befell the Eye of Nebertcher
or of Khepera, but what it was is not clear; at all events the Eye
became obscured, and it ceased to give light. This period of darkness
is, of course, the night, and to obviate the inconvenience caused by
this recurring period of darkness, the god made a second Eye, _i.e._ the
Moon, and set it in the heavens. The greater Eye ruled the day, and the
lesser Eye the night. One of the results of the daily darkness was the
descent of the Sky-goddess Nut to the Earth-god Keb each evening.
[Footnote 1: The second version here states that the name of Nebertcher
is Ausares (Osiris), who is the oldest god of all.]
The gods and goddesses next created were five, namely, Osiris, Horus,
Set, Isis, and Nephthys. Osiris married Isis, and their son was called
Horus; Set married Nephthys, but their son Anpu, or Anubis, is not
mentioned in our text. Osiris became the great Ancestor-god of Egypt,
and was a reincarnation of his great-grandfather. Men and women were
first formed from the tears that fell from the Eye of Khepera, or the
Sun-god, upon his body; the old Egyptian word for "men" very closely
resembles in form and sound the word for "tears." Plants, vegetables,
herbs, and trees owe their origin to the light of the moon falling upon
the earth. Our text contains no mention of a special creation of the
"beasts of the field," but the god states distinctly that he created the
children of the earth, or creeping things of all kinds, and among this
class quadrupeds are probably included. The men and women, and all the
other living creatures that were made at that time by Nebertcher, or
Khepera, reproduced their species, each in his own way, and thus the
earth became filled with their descendants as we see at the present
time. The elements of this Creation legend are very, very old, and the
form in which they are grouped in our text suggests the influence of the
priests of Heliopolis. It is interesting to note that only very ancient
gods appear as Powers of creation, and these were certainly worshipped
for many centuries before the priests of Heliopolis invented their cult
of the Sun-god, and identified their god with the older gods of the
country. We may note, too, that gods like Ptah and Amen, whose
reputation was so great in later times, and even when our text was
copied in 305 B.C., find no mention at all.