LEGENDS OF THE GODS
The Egyptians believed that at one time all the great gods and goddesses
lived upon earth, and that they ruled Egypt in much the same way as the
Pharaohs with whom they were more or less acquainted. They went about
among men and took a real personal interest in their affairs, and,
according to tradition, they spared no pains in promoting their wishes
and well-being. Their rule was on the whole beneficent, chiefly because
in addition to their divine attributes they possessed natures, and
apparently bodily constitutions that were similar to those of men. Like
men also they were supposed to feel emotions and passions, and to be
liable to the accidents that befell men, and to grow old, and even to
die. The greatest of all the gods was Rā, and he reigned over Egypt for
very many years. His reign was marked by justice and righteousness, and
he was in all periods of Egyptian history regarded as the type of what a
king should be. When men instead of gods reigned over Egypt they all
delighted to call themselves sons of Rā, and every king believed that Rā
was his true father, and regarded his mother's husband as his father
only in name. This belief was always common in Egypt, and even Alexander
the Great found it expedient to adopt it, for he made a journey to the
sanctuary of Amen (Ammon) in the Oasis of Sīwāh in order to be
officially acknowledged by the god. Having obtained this recognition, he
became the rightful lord of Egypt.
THE DESTRUCTION OF MANKIND
This Legend is cut in hieroglyphs on the walls of a small chamber in the
tomb of Seti I about 1350 B.C. When Rā, the self-begotten and
self-formed god, had been ruling gods and men for some time, men began
to complain about him, saying, "His Majesty hath become old. His bones
have turned into silver, his flesh into gold, and his hair into real
lapis-lazuli." His Majesty heard these murmurings and commanded his
followers to summon to his presence his Eye (_i.e._ the goddess Hathor),
Shu, Tefnut, Keb, Nut, and the father and mother gods and goddesses who
were with him in the watery abyss of NU, and also the god of this water,
NU. They were to come to him with all their followers secretly, so that
men should not suspect the reason for their coming, and take flight, and
they were to assemble in the Great House in Heliopolis, where Rā would
take counsel with them. In due course all the gods assembled in the
Great House, and they ranged themselves down the sides of the House, and
they bowed down in homage before Rā until their heads touched the
ground, and said, "Speak, for we are listening." Then Rā addresing Nu,
the father of the first-born gods, told him to give heed to what men
were doing, for they whom he had created were murmuring against him. And
he said, "Tell me what ye would do. Consider the matter, invent a plan
for me, and I will not slay them until I have heard what ye shall say
concerning this thing." Nu replied, "Thou, O my son Rā, art greater than
the god who made thee (_i.e._ Nu himself), thou art the king of those
who were created with thee, thy throne is established, and the fear of
thee is great. Let thine Eye (Hathor) attack those who blaspheme thee."
And Rā said, "Lo, they have fled to the mountains, for their hearts are
afraid because of what they have said." The gods replied, "Let thine Eye
go forth and destroy those who blasphemed thee, for no eye can resist
thine when it goeth forth in the form of Hathor." Thereupon the Eye of
Rā, or Hathor, went in pursuit of the blasphemers in the mountains, and
slew them all. On her return Rā welcomed her, and the goddess said that
the work of vanquishing men was dear to her heart. Rā then said that he
would be the master of men as their king, and that he would destroy
them. For three nights the goddess Hathor-Sekhmet waded about in the
blood of men, the slaughter beginning at Hensu (Herakleopolis Magna).
Then the Majesty of Rā ordered that messengers should be sent to Abu, a
town at the foot of the First Cataract, to fetch mandrakes (?), and when
they were brought he gave them to the god Sekti to crush. When the women
slaves were bruising grain for making beer, the crushed mandrakes (?)
were placed in the vessels that were to hold the beer, together with
some of the blood of those who had been slain by Hathor. The beer was
then made, and seven thousand vessels were filled with it. When Rā saw
the beer he ordered it to be taken to the scene of slaughter, and poured
out on the meadows of the four quarters of heaven. The object of putting
mandrakes (?) in the beer was to make those who drank fall asleep
quickly, and when the goddess Hathor came and drank the beer mixed with
blood and mandrakes (?) she became very merry, and, the sleepy stage of
drunkenness coming on her, she forgot all about men, and slew no more.
At every festival of Hathor ever after "sleepy beer" was made, and it
was drunk by those who celebrated the feast.
Now, although the blasphemers of Rā had been put to death, the heart of
the god was not satisfied, and he complained to the gods that he was
smitten with the "pain of the fire of sickness." He said, "My heart is
weary because I have to live with men; I have slain some of them, but
worthless men still live, and I did not slay as many as I ought to have
done considering my power." To this the gods replied, "Trouble not about
thy lack of action, for thy power is in proportion to thy will." Here
the text becomes fragmentary, but it seems that the goddess Nut took the
form of a cow, and that the other gods lifted Rā on to her back. When
men saw that Rā was leaving the earth, they repented of their
murmurings, and the next morning they went out with bows and arrows to
fight the enemies of the Sun-god. As a reward for this Rā forgave those
men their former blasphemies, but persisted in his intention of retiring
from the earth. He ascended into the heights of heaven, being still on
the back of the Cow-goddess Nut, and he created there Sekhet-hetep and
Sekhet-Aaru as abodes for the blessed, and the flowers that blossomed
therein he turned into stars. He also created the millions of beings who
lived there in order that they might praise him. The height to which Rā
had ascended was now so great that the legs of the Cow-goddess on which
he was enthroned trembled, and to give her strength he ordained that Nut
should be held up in her position by the godhead and upraised arms of
the god Shu. This is why we see pictures of the body of Nut being
supported by Shu. The legs of the Cow-goddess were supported by the
various gods, and thus the seat of the throne of Rā became stable. When
this was done Rā caused the Earth-god Keb to be summoned to his
presence, and when he came he spake to him about the venomous reptiles
that lived in the earth and were hostile to him. Then turning to Thoth,
he bade him to prepare a series of spells and words of power, which
would enable those who knew them to overcome snakes and serpents and
deadly reptiles of all kinds. Thoth did so, and the spells which he
wrote under the direction of Rā served as a protection of the servants
of Rā ever after, and secured for them the help of Keb, who became sole
lord of all the beings that lived and moved on and in his body, the
earth. Before finally relinquishing his active rule on earth, Rā
summoned Thoth and told him of his desire to create a Light-soul in the
Tuat and in the Land of the Caves. Over this region he appointed Thoth
to rule, and he ordered him to keep a register of those who were there,
and to mete out just punishments to them. In fact, Thoth was to be ever
after the representative of Rā in the Other World.
THE LEGEND OF RĀ AND ISIS
This Legend is found written in the hieratic character upon a papyrus
preserved in Turin, and it illustrates a portion of the preceding
Legend. We have seen that Rā instructed Thoth to draw up a series of
spells to be used against venomous reptiles of all kinds, and the reader
will perceive from the following summary that Rā had good reason for
doing this. The Legend opens with a list of the titles of Rā, the
"self-created god," creator of heaven, earth, breath of life, fire,
gods, men, beasts, cattle, reptiles, feathered fowl, and fish, the King
of gods and men, to whom cycles of 120 years are as years, whose
manifold names are unknown even by the gods. The text continues: "Isis
had the form of a woman, and knew words of power, but she was disgusted
with men, and she yearned for the companionship of the gods and the
spirits, and she meditated and asked herself whether, supposing she had
the knowledge of the Name of Rā, it was not possible to make herself as
great as Rā was in heaven and on the earth? Meanwhile Rā appeared in
heaven each day upon his throne, but he had become old, and he dribbled
at the mouth, and his spittle fell on the ground. One day Isis took some
of the spittle and kneaded up dust in it, and made this paste into the
form of a serpent with a forked tongue, so that if it struck anyone the
person struck would find it impossible to escape death. This figure she
placed on the path on which Rā walked as he came into heaven after his
daily survey of the Two Lands (_i.e._ Egypt). Soon after this Rā rose
up, and attended by his gods he came into heaven, but as he went along
the serpent drove its fangs into him. As soon as he was bitten Rā felt
the living fire leaving his body, and he cried out so loudly that his
voice reached the uttermost parts of heaven. The gods rushed to him in
great alarm, saying, "What is the matter?" At first Rā was speechless,
and found himself unable to answer, for his jaws shook, his lips
trembled, and the poison continued to run through every part of his
body. When he was able to regain a little strength, he told the gods
that some deadly creature had bitten him, something the like of which he
had never seen, something which his hand had never made. He said, "Never
before have I felt such pain; there is no pain worse than this." Rā then
went on to describe his greatness and power, and told the listening gods
that his father and mother had hidden his name in his body so that no
one might be able to master him by means of any spell or word of power.
In spite of this something had struck him, and he knew not what it was.
"Is it fire?" he asked. "Is it water? My heart is full of burning fire,
my limbs are shivering, shooting pains are in all my members." All the
gods round about him uttered cries of lamentation, and at this moment
Isis appeared. Going to Rā she said, "What is this, O divine father?
What is this? Hath a serpent bitten thee? Hath something made by thee
lifted up its head against thee? Verily my words of power shall
overthrow it; I will make it depart in the sight of thy light." Rā then
repeated to Isis the story of the incident, adding, "I am colder than
water, I am hotter than fire. All my members sweat. My body quaketh.
Mine eye is unsteady. I cannot look on the sky, and my face is bedewed
with water as in the time of the Inundation."[1] Then Isis said,
"Father, tell me thy name, for he who can utter his own name liveth."
[Footnote 1: _i.e._ in the period of summer. The season Shemmu began in
April and ended about July 15.]
Rā replied, "I am the maker of heaven and earth. I knit together the
mountains and whatsoever liveth on them. I made the waters. I made
Mehturit[1] to come into being. I made Kamutef.[2] I made heaven, and
the two hidden gods of the horizon, and put souls into the gods. I open
my eyes, and there is light; I shut my eyes, and there is darkness. I
speak the word[s], and the waters of the Nile appear. I am he whom the
gods know not. I make the hours. I create the days. I open the year. I
make the river [Nile]. I create the living fire whereby works in the
foundries and workshops are carried out. I am Khepera in the morning, Rā
at noon, and Temu in the evening." Meanwhile the poison of the serpent
was coursing through the veins of Rā, and the enumeration of his works
afforded the god no relief from it. Then Isis said to Rā, "Among all the
things which thou hast named to me thou hast not named thy name. Tell me
thy name, and the poison shall come forth from thee." Rā still
hesitated, but the poison was burning in his blood, and the heat thereof
was stronger than that of a fierce fire. At length he said, "Isis shall
search me through, and my name shall come forth from my body and pass
into hers." Then Rā hid himself from the gods, and for a season his
throne in the Boat of Millions of Years was empty. When the time came
for the heart of the god to pass into Isis, the goddess said to Horus,
her son, "The great god shall bind himself by an oath to give us his two
eyes (_i.e._ the sun and the moon)." When the great god had yielded up
his name Isis pronounced the following spell: "Flow poison, come out of
Rā. Eye of Horus, come out of the god, and sparkle as thou comest
through his mouth. I am the worker. I make the poison to fall on the
ground. The poison is conquered. Truly the name of the great god hath
been taken from him. Rā liveth! The poison dieth! If the poison live Rā
shall die." These were the words which Isis spoke, Isis the great lady,
the Queen of the gods, who knew Rā by his own name.
[Footnote 1: An ancient Cow-goddess of heaven.]
[Footnote 2: A form of Amen-Rā.]
In late times magicians used to write the above Legend on papyrus above
figures of Temu and Heru-Hekenu, who gave Rā his secret name, and over
figures of Isis and Horus, and sell the rolls as charms against snake
bites.
THE LEGEND OF HORUS OF BEHUTET AND THE WINGED DISK
The text of this Legend is cut in hieroglyphs on the walls of the temple
of Edfu, in Upper Egypt, and some of the incidents described in it are
illustrated by large bas-reliefs. The form of the Legend here given
dates from the Ptolemaic Period, but the subject matter is some
thousands of years older. The great historical fact underlying the
Legend is the Conquest of Egypt by some very early king who invaded
Egypt from the south, and who succeeded in conquering every part of it,
even the northern part of the Delta. The events described are supposed
to have taken place whilst Rā was still reigning on the earth. The
Legend states that in the three hundred and sixty-third year of the
reign of Rā-Harmakhis, the ever living, His Majesty was in Ta-sti
(_i.e._ the Land of the Bow, or Nubia) with his soldiers; the enemy had
reviled him, and for this reason the land is called "Uauatet" to this
day. From Nubia Rā sailed down the river to Apollinopolis (Edfu), and
Heru-Behutet, or Horus of Edfu, was with him. On arriving there Horus
told Rā that the enemy were plotting against him, and Rā told him to go
out and slay them. Horus took the form of a great winged disk, which
flew up into the air and pursued the enemy, and it attacked them with
such terrific force that they could neither see nor hear, and they fell
upon each other, and slew each other, and in a moment not a single foe
was left alive. Then Horus returned to the Boat of Rā-Harmakhis, in the
form of the winged disk which shone with many colours, and said,
"Advance, O Rā, and look upon thine enemies who are lying under thee in
this land." Rā set out on the journey, taking with him the goddess
Ashtoreth, and he saw his enemies lying on the ground, each of them
being fettered. After looking upon his slaughtered foes Rā said to the
gods who were with him, "Behold, let us sail in our boat on the water,
for our hearts are glad because our enemies have been overthrown on the
earth." So the Boat of Rā moved onwards towards the north, and the
enemies of the god who were on the banks took the form of crocodiles and
hippopotami, and tried to frighten the god, for as his boat came near
them they opened their jaws wide, intending to swallow it up together
with the gods who were in it. Among the crew were the Followers of Horus
of Edfu, who were skilled workers in metal, and each of these had in his
hands an iron spear and a chain. These "Blacksmiths" threw out their
chains into the river and allowed the crocodiles and hippopotami to
entangle their legs in them, and then they dragged the beasts towards
the bows of the Boat, and driving their spears into their bodies, slew
them there. After the slaughter the bodies of six hundred and fifty-one
crocodiles were brought and laid out before the town of Edfu. When Thoth
saw these he said, "Let your hearts rejoice, O gods of heaven, Let your
hearts rejoice, O ye gods who dwell on the earth. The Young Horus cometh
in peace. On his way he hath made manifest deeds of valour, according to
the Book of slaying the Hippopotamus." And from that day they made
figures of Horus in metal.
Then Horus of Edfu took the form of the winged disk, and set himself on
the prow of the Boat of Rā. He took with him Nekhebet, goddess of the
South, and Uatchet, goddess of the North, in the form of serpents, so
that they might make all the enemies of the Sun-god to quake in the
South and in the North. His foes who had fled to the north doubled back
towards the south, for they were in deadly fear of the god. Horus
pursued and overtook them, and he and his blacksmiths had in their hands
spears and chains, and they slew large numbers of them to the south-east
of the town of Thebes in Upper Egypt. Many succeeded in escaping towards
the north once more, but after pursuing them for a whole day Horus
overtook them, and made a great slaughter among them. Meanwhile the
other foes of the god, who had heard of the defeats of their allies,
fled into Lower Egypt, and took refuge among the swamps of the Delta.
Horus set out after them, and came up with them, and spent four days in
the water slaying his foes, who tried to escape in the forms of
crocodiles and hippopotami. He captured one hundred and forty-two of the
enemy and a male hippopotamus, and took them to the fore part of the
Boat of Rā. There he hacked them in pieces, and gave their inward parts
to his followers, and their mutilated bodies to the gods and goddesses
who were in the Boat of Rā and on the river banks in the town of Heben.
Then the remnant of the enemy turned their faces towards the Lake of the
North, and they attempted to sail to the Mediterranean in boats; but the
terror of Horus filled their hearts, and they left their boats and fled
to the district of Mertet-Ament, where they joined themselves to the
worshippers of Set, the god of evil, who dwelt in the Western Delta.
Horus pursued them in his boat for one day and one night without seeing
them, and he arrived at the town of Per-Rehui. At length he discovered
the position of the enemy, and he and his followers fell upon them, and
slew a large number of them; he captured three hundred and eighty-one of
them alive, and these he took to the Boat of Rā, then, having slain
them, he gave their carcases to his followers or bodyguard, who
presumably devoured them. The custom of eating the bodies of enemies is
very old in Egypt, and survives in some parts of Africa to this day.
Then Set, the great antagonist of Horus, came out and cursed him for the
slaughter of his people, using most shameful words of abuse. Horus stood
up and fought a duel with Set, the "Stinking Face," as the text calls
him, and Horus succeeded in throwing him to the ground and spearing him.
Horus smashed his mouth with a blow of his mace, and having fettered him
with his chain, he brought him into the presence of Rā, who ordered that
he was to be handed over to Isis and her son Horus, that they might work
their will on him. Here we must note that the ancient editor of the
Legend has confounded Horus the ancient Sun-god with Horus, son of Isis,
son of Osiris. Then Horus, the son of Isis, cut off the heads of Set and
his followers in the presence of Rā, and dragged Set by his feet round
about throughout the district with his spear driven through his head and
back, according to the order of Rā. The form which Horus of Edfu had at
that time was that of a man of great strength, with the face and back of
a hawk; on his head he wore the Double Crown, with feathers and serpents
attached, and in his hands he held a metal spear and a metal chain. And
Horus, the son of Isis, took upon himself a similar form, and the two
Horuses slew all the enemies on the bank of the river to the west of the
town of Per-Rehui. This slaughter took place on the seventh day of the
first month of the season Pert,[1] which was ever afterwards called the
"Day of the Festival of Sailing."
[Footnote 1: About the middle of November.]
Now, although Set in the form of a man had been slain, he reappeared in
the form of a great hissing serpent, and took up his abode in a hole in
the ground without being noticed by Horus. Rā, however, saw him, and
gave orders that Horus, the son of Isis, in the form of a hawk-headed
staff, should set himself at the mouth of the hole, so that the monster
might never reappear among men. This Horus did, and Isis his mother
lived there with him. Once again it became known to Rā that a remnant of
the followers of Set had escaped, and that under the direction of the
Smait fiends, and of Set, who had reappeared, they were hiding in the
swamps of the Eastern Delta. Horus of Edfu, the winged disk, pursued
them, speared them, and finally slew them in the presence of Rā. For the
moment there were no more enemies of Rā to be found in the district on
land, although Horus passed six days and six nights in looking for them;
but it seems that several of the followers of Set in the forms of water
reptiles were lying on the ground under water, and that Horus saw them
there. At this time Horus had strict guard kept over the tomb of Osiris
in Anrutef,[1] because he learned that the Smait fiends wanted to come
and wreck both it and the body of the god. Isis, too, never ceased to
recite spells and incantations in order to keep away her husband's foes
from his body. Meanwhile the "blacksmiths" of Horus, who were in charge
of the "middle regions" of Egypt, found a body of the enemy, and
attacked them fiercely, slew many of them, and took one hundred and six
of them prisoners. The "blacksmiths" of the west also took one hundred
and six prisoners, and both groups of prisoners were slain before Rā. In
return for their services Rā bestowed dwelling-places upon the
"blacksmiths," and allowed them to have temples with images of their
gods in them, and arranged for offerings and libations to be made to
them by properly appointed priests of various classes.
[Footnote 1: A district of Herakleopolis.]
Shortly after these events Rā discovered that a number of his enemies
were still at large, and that they had sailed in boats to the swamps
that lay round about the town of Tchal, or Tchar, better known as Zoan
or Tanis. Once more Horus unmoored the Boat of Rā, and set out against
them; some took refuge in the waters, and others landed and escaped to
the hilly land on the east. For some reason, which is not quite
apparent, Horus took the form of a mighty lion with a man's face, and he
wore on his head the triple crown. His claws were like flints, and he
pursued the enemy on the hills, and chased them hither and thither, and
captured one hundred and forty-two of them. He tore out their tongues,
and ripped their bodies into strips with his claws, and gave them over
to his allies in the mountains, who, no doubt, ate them. This was the
last fight in the north of Egypt, and Rā proposed that they should sail
up the river and return to the south. They had traversed all Egypt, and
sailed over the lakes in the Delta, and down the arms of the Nile to the
Mediterranean, and as no more of the enemy were to be seen the prow of
the boat of Rā was turned southwards. Thoth recited the spells that
produced fair weather, and said the words of power that prevented storms
from rising, and in due course the Boat reached Nubia. When it arrived
Horus found in the country of Uauatet men who were conspiring against
him and cursing him, just as they had at one time blasphemed Rā. Horus,
taking the form of the winged disk, and accompanied by the two
serpent-goddesses, Nekhebet and Uatchet, attacked the rebels, but there
was no fierce fighting this time, for the hearts of the enemy melted
through fear of him. His foes cast themselves before him on the ground
in submission, they offered no resistance, and they died straightway.
Horus then returned to the town of Behutet (Edfu), and the gods
acclaimed him, and praised his prowess. Rā was so pleased with him that
he ordered Thoth to have a winged disk, with a serpent on each side of
it, placed in every temple in Egypt in which he (_i.e._ Rā) was
worshipped, so that it might act as a protector of the building, and
drive away any and every fiend and devil that might wish to attack it.
This is the reason why we find the winged disk, with a serpent on each
side of it, above the doors of temples and religious buildings
throughout the length and breadth of Egypt.
In many places in the text that contains the above Legend there are
short passages in which attempts are made to explain the origins of the
names of certain towns and gods. All these are interpolations in the
narrative made by scribes at a late period of Egyptian history. As it
would be quite useless to reproduce them without many explanatory notes,
for which there is no room in this little book, they have been omitted.
THE LEGEND OF KHNEMU AND A SEVEN YEARS' FAMINE
This Legend is cut in hieroglyphs on a large rounded block of granite,
which stands on the south-east portion of Sāhal, a little island in the
First Cataract in Upper Egypt, two or three miles to the south of the
modern town of Aswān, the ancient Syene. The form of the Legend, and the
shapes of the hieroglyphs, and the late spelling of the words, prove
that the inscription is the work of the Ptolemaic Period, though it is
possible that the Legend in its simplest form is as old as the period to
which it is ascribed in the Sāhal text, namely, the third dynasty, about
4100 B.C. The subject of the Legend is a terrible famine, which lasted
for seven years, in the reign of King Tcheser, and which recalls the
seven years' famine that took place in Egypt when Joseph was there. This
famine was believed to have been caused by the king's neglect to worship
properly the god Khnemu, who was supposed to control the springs of the
Nile, which were asserted by the sages to be situated between two great
rocks on the Island of Elephantine. The Legend sets forth that the
Viceroy of Nubia, in the reign of Tcheser, was a nobleman called Meter,
who was also the overseer of all the temple properties in the South. His
residence was in Abu, or Elephantine, and in the eighteenth year of his
reign the king sent him a despatch in which it was written thus: "This
is to inform thee that misery hath laid hold upon me as I sit upon the
great throne, and I grieve for those who dwell in the Great House.[1] My
heart is grievously afflicted by reason of a very great calamity, which
is due to the fact that the waters of the Nile have not risen to their
proper height for seven years. Grain is exceedingly scarce, there are no
garden herbs and vegetables to be had at all, and everything which men
use for food hath come to an end. Every man robbeth his neighbour. The
people wish to walk about, but are unable to move. The baby waileth, the
young man shuffleth along on his feet through weakness. The hearts of
the old men are broken down with despair, their legs give way under
them, they sink down exhausted on the ground, and they lay their hands
on their bellies [in pain]. The officials are powerless and have no
counsel to give, and when the public granaries, which ought to contain
supplies, are opened, there cometh forth from them nothing but wind.
Everything is in a state of ruin. I go back in my mind to the time when
I had an adviser, to the time of the gods, to the Ibis-god [Thoth], and
to the chief Kher-heb priest Imhetep (Imouthis),[2] the son of Ptah of
his South Wall.[3] [Tell me, I pray thee], Where is the birthplace of
the Nile? What god or what goddess presideth over it? What kind of form
hath the god? For it is he that maketh my revenue, and who filleth the
granaries with grain. I wish to go to [consult] the Chief of
Het-Sekhmet,[4] whose beneficence strengtheneth all men in their works.
I wish to go into the House of Life,[5] and to take the rolls of the
books in my own hands, so that I may examine them [and find out these
things]."
[Footnote 1: An allusion to the royal title of Pharaoh, in Egyptian
PER-AA, the "Great House," in whom and by whom all the Egyptians were
supposed to live.]
[Footnote 2: A famous priest and magician of Memphis, who was
subsequently deified.]
[Footnote 3: A part of Memphis.]
[Footnote 4: _i.e._ Hermopolis, the town of Thoth.]
[Footnote 5: _i.e._ the library of the temple.]
Having read the royal despatch the Viceroy Meter set out to go to the
king, and when he came to him he proceeded to instruct the king in the
matters about which he had asked questions. The text makes the king say:
"[Meter] gave me information about the rise of the Nile, and he told me
all that men had written concerning it; and he made clear to me all the
difficult passages [in the books], which my ancestors had consulted
hastily, and which had never before been explained to any king since the
time when Rā [reigned]. And he said to me: There is a town in the river
wherefrom the Nile maketh his appearance. 'Abu' was its name in the
beginning: it is the City of the Beginning, it is the Name of the City
of the Beginning. It reacheth to Uauatet, which is the first land [on
the south]. There is a long flight of steps there (a nilometer?), on
which Rā resteth when he determineth to prolong life to mankind. It is
called 'Netchemtchem ānkh.' Here are the 'Two Qerti,'[1] which are the
two breasts wherefrom every good thing cometh. Here is the bed of the
Nile, here the Nile-god reneweth his youth, and here he sendeth out the
flood on the land. Here his waters rise to a height of twenty-eight
cubits; at Hermopolis (in the Delta) their height is seven cubits. Here
the Nile-god smiteth the ground with his sandals, and here he draweth
the bolts and throweth open the two doors through which the water
poureth forth. In this town the Nile-god dwelleth in the form of Shu,
and he keepeth the account of the products of all Egypt, in order to
give to each his due. Here are kept the cord for measuring land and the
register of the estates. Here the god liveth in a wooden house with a
door made of reeds, and branches of trees form the roof; its entrance is
to the south-east. Round about it are mountains of stone to which
quarrymen come with their tools when they want stone to build temples to
the gods, shrines for sacred animals, and pyramids for kings, or to make
statues. Here they offer sacrifices of all kinds in the sanctuary, and
here their sweet-smelling gifts are presented before the face of the god
Khnemu. In the quarries on the river bank is granite, which is called
the 'stone of Abu.' The names of its gods are: Sept (Sothis, the
dog-star), Ānqet, Hep (the Nile-god), Shu, Keb, Nut, Osiris, Horus,
Isis, and Nephthys. Here are found precious stones (a list is given),
gold, silver, copper, iron, lapis-lazuli, emerald, crystal, ruby, &c.,
alabaster, mother-of-emerald, and seeds of plants that are used in
making incense. These were the things which I learned from Meter [the
Viceroy]."
[Footnote 1: The two caverns which contained the springs of the Nile.]
Having informed the king concerning the rise of the Nile and the other
matters mentioned in his despatch, Meter made arrangements for the king
to visit the temple of Khnemu in person. This he did, and the Legend
gives us the king's own description of his visit. He says: I entered the
temple, and the keepers of the rolls untied them and showed them to me.
I was purified by the sprinkling of holy water, and I passed through the
places that were prohibited to ordinary folk, and a great offering of
cakes, ale, geese, oxen, &c., was offered up on my behalf to the gods
and goddesses of Abu. Then I found the god [Khnemu] standing in front of
me, and I propitiated him with the offerings that I made unto him, and I
made prayer and supplication before him. Then he opened his eyes,[1] and
his heart inclined to me, and in a majestic manner he said unto me: "I
am Khnemu who fashioned thee. My two hands grasped thee and knitted
together thy body; I made thy members sound, and I gave thee thy heart.
Yet the stones have been lying under the ground for ages, and no man
hath worked them in order to build a god-house, to repair the [sacred]
buildings which are in ruins, or to make shrines for the gods of the
South and North, or to do what he ought to do for his lord, even though
I am the Lord [the Creator]. I am Nu, the self-created, the Great God,
who came into being in the beginning. [I am] Hep [the Nile-god] who
riseth at will to give health to him that worketh for me. I am the
Governor and Guide of all men, in all their periods, the Most Great, the
Father of the gods, Shu, the Great One, the Chief of the earth. The two
halves of heaven are my abode. The Nile is poured out in a stream by me,
and it goeth round about the tilled lands, and its embrace produceth
life for every one that breatheth, according to the extent of its
embrace.... I will make the Nile to rise for thee, and in no year shall
it fail, and it shall spread its water out and cover every land
satisfactorily. Plants, herbs, and trees shall bend beneath [the weight
of] their produce. The goddess Rennet (the Harvest goddess) shall be at
the head of everything, and every product shall increase a hundred
thousandfold, according to the cubit of the year.[2] The people shall be
filled, verily to their hearts' desire, yea, everyone. Want shall cease,
and the emptiness of the granaries shall come to an end. The Land of
Mera (_i.e._ Egypt) shall be one cultivated land, the districts shall
be yellow with crops of grain, and the grain shall be good. The
fertility of the land shall be according to the desire [of the
husbandman], and it shall be greater than it hath ever been before." At
the sound of the word "crops" the king awoke, and the courage that then
filled his heart was as great as his former despair had been.
[Footnote 1: The king was standing before a statue with movable eyes.]
[Footnote 2: _i.e._ the number of the cubits which the waters of the
Nile shall rise.]
Having left the chamber of the god the king made a decree by which he
endowed the temple of Khnemu with lands and gifts, and he drew up a code
of laws under which every farmer was compelled to pay certain dues to
it. Every fisherman and hunter had to pay a tithe. Of the calves cast
one tenth were to be sent to the temple to be offered up as the daily
offering. Gold, ivory, ebony, spices, precious stones, and woods were
tithed, whether their owners were Egyptians or not, but no local tribe
was to levy duty on these things on their road to Abu. Every artisan
also was to pay tithe, with the exception of those who were employed in
the foundry attached to the temple, and whose occupation consisted in
making the images of the gods. The king further ordered that a copy of
this decree, the original of which was cut in wood, should be engraved
on a stele to be set up in the sanctuary, with figures of Khnemu and his
companion gods cut above it. The man who spat upon the stele [if
discovered] was to be "admonished with a rope."
THE LEGEND OF THE WANDERINGS OF ISIS
The god Osiris, as we have seen in the chapter on the Egyptian Religion
in the accompanying volume, lived and reigned at one time upon earth in
the form of a man. His twin-brother Set was jealous of his popularity,
and hated him to such a degree that he contrived a plan whereby he
succeeded in putting Osiris to death. Set then tried to usurp his
brother's kingdom and to make himself sole lord of Egypt, and, although
no text states it distinctly, it is clear that he seized his brother's
wife, Isis, and shut her up in his house. Isis was, however, under the
protection of the god Thoth, and she escaped with her unborn child, and
the following Legend describes the incidents that befell her, and the
death and revivification of Horus. It is cut in hieroglyphs upon a large
stone stele which was made for Ānkh-Psemthek, a prophet of Nebun in the
reign of Nectanebus I, who reigned from 373 B.C. to 360 B.C. The stele
was dug up in 1828 at Alexandria, and was given to Prince Metternich by
Muhammad Alī Pāsha; it is now commonly known as the "Metternich Stele."
The Legend is narrated by the goddess herself, who says:
I am Isis. I escaped from the dwelling wherein my brother Set placed me.
Thoth, the great god, the Prince of Truth in heaven and on earth, said
unto me: "Come, O goddess Isis [hearken thou], it is a good thing to
hearken, for he who is guided by another liveth. Hide thyself with thy
child, and these things shall happen unto him. His body shall grow and
flourish, and strength of every kind shall be in him. He shall sit upon
his father's throne, he shall avenge him, and he shall hold the exalted
position of 'Governor of the Two Lands.'" I left the house of Set in the
evening, and there accompanied me Seven Scorpions, that were to travel
with me, and sting with their stings on my behalf. Two of them, Tefen
and Befen, followed behind me, two of them, Mestet and Mestetef, went
one on each side of me, and three, Petet, Thetet, and Maatet, prepared
the way for me. I charged them very carefully and adjured them to make
no acquaintance with any one, to speak to none of the Red Fiends, to pay
no heed to a servant (?), and to keep their gaze towards the ground so
that they might show me the way. And their leader brought me to Pa-Sui,
the town of the Sacred Sandals,[1] at the head of the district of the
Papyrus Swamps. When I arrived at Teb I came to a quarter of the town
where women dwelt. And a certain woman of quality spied me as I was
journeying along the road, and she shut her door in my face, for she was
afraid because of the Seven Scorpions that were with me. Then they took
counsel concerning her, and they shot out their poison on the tail of
Tefen. As for me, a peasant woman called Taha opened her door, and I
went into the house of this humble woman. Then the scorpion Tefen
crawled in under the door of the woman Usert [who had shut it in my
face], and stung her son, and a fire broke out in it; there was no water
to put it out, but the sky sent down rain, though it was not the time of
rain. And the heart of Usert was sore within her, and she was very sad,
for she knew not whether her son would live or die; and she went through
the town shrieking for help, but none came out at the sound of her
voice. And I was sad for the child's sake, and I wished the innocent one
to live again. So I cried out to her, saying, Come to me! Come to me!
There is life in my mouth. I am a woman well known in her town. I can
destroy the devil of death by a spell which my father taught me. I am
his daughter, his beloved one.
[Footnote 1: These places were in the seventh nome of Lower Egypt
(Metelites).]
Then Isis laid her hands on the child and recited this spell:
"O poison of Tefent, come forth, fall on the ground; go no further. O
poison of Befent, come forth, fall on the ground. I am Isis, the
goddess, the mistress of words of power. I am a weaver of spells, I know
how to utter words so that they take effect. Hearken to me, O every
reptile that biteth (or stingeth), and fall on the ground. O poison of
Mestet, go no further. O poison of Mestetef, rise not up in his body. O
poison of Petet and Thetet, enter not his body. O poison of Maatet, fall
on the ground. Ascend not into heaven, I command you by the beloved of
Rā, the egg of the goose which appeareth from the sycamore. My words
indeed rule to the uttermost limit of the night. I speak to you, O
scorpions. I am alone and in sorrow, and our names will stink throughout
the nomes.... The child shall live! The poison shall die! For Rā liveth
and the poison dieth. Horus shall be saved through his mother Isis, and
he who is stricken shall likewise be saved." Meanwhile the fire in the
house of Usert was extinguished, and heaven was content with the
utterance of Isis. Then the lady Usert was filled with sorrow because
she had shut her door in the face of Isis, and she brought to the house
of the peasant woman gifts for the goddess, whom she had apparently not
recognised. The spells of the goddess produced, of course, the desired
effect on the poison, and we may assume that the life of the child was
restored to him. The second lot of gifts made to Isis represented his
mother's gratitude.
Exactly when and how Isis made her way to a hiding place cannot be said,
but she reached it in safety, and her son Horus was born there. The
story of the death of Horus she tells in the following words: "I am
Isis. I conceived a child, Horus, and I brought him forth in a cluster
of papyrus plants (or, bulrushes). I rejoiced exceedingly, for in him I
saw one who would make answer for his father. I hid him, and I covered
him up carefully, being afraid of that foul one [Set], and then I went
to the town of Am, where the people gave thanks for me because they knew
I could cause them trouble. I passed the day in collecting food for the
child, and when I returned and took Horus into my arms, I found him,
Horus, the beautiful one of gold, the boy, the child, lifeless! He had
bedewed the ground with the water of his eye and with the foam of his
lips. His body was motionless, his heart did not beat, and his muscles
were relaxed." Then Isis sent forth a bitter cry, and lamented loudly
her misfortune, for now that Horus was dead she had none to protect her,
or to take vengeance on Set. When the people heard her voice they went
out to her, and they bewailed with her the greatness of her affliction.
But though all lamented on her behalf there was none who could bring
back Horus to life. Then a "woman who was well known in her town, a lady
who was the mistress of property in her own right," went out to Isis,
and consoled her, and assured her that the child should live through his
mother. And she said, "A scorpion hath stung him, the reptile Āunab hath
wounded him." Then Isis bent her face over the child to find out if he
breathed, and she examined the wound, and found that there was poison in
it, and then taking him in her arms, "she leaped about with him like a
fish that is put upon hot coals," uttering loud cries of lamentation.
During this outburst of grief the goddess Nephthys, her sister, arrived,
and she too lamented and cried bitterly over her sister's loss; with
her came the Scorpion-goddess Serqet. Nephthys at once advised Isis to
cry out for help to Rā, for, said she, it is wholly impossible for the
Boat of Rā to travel across the sky whilst Horus is lying dead. Then
Isis cried out, and made supplication to the Boat of Millions of Years,
and the Sun-god stopped the Boat. Out of it came down Thoth, who was
provided with powerful spells, and, going to Isis, he inquired
concerning her trouble. "What is it, what is it, O Isis, thou goddess of
spells, whose mouth hath skill to utter them with supreme effect? Surely
no evil thing hath befallen Horus, for the Boat of Rā hath him under its
protection. I have come from the Boat of the Disk to heal Horus." Then
Thoth told Isis not to fear, but to put away all anxiety from her heart,
for he had come to heal her child, and he told her that Horus was fully
protected because he was the Dweller in his disk, and the firstborn son
of heaven, and the Great Dwarf, and the Mighty Ram, and the Great Hawk,
and the Holy Beetle, and the Hidden Body, and the Governor of the Other
World, and the Holy Benu Bird, and by the spells of Isis and the names
of Osiris and the weeping of his mother and brethren, and by his own
name and heart. Turning towards the child Thoth began to recite his
spells and said, "Wake up, Horus! Thy protection is established. Make
thou happy the heart of thy mother Isis. The words of Horus bind up
hearts and he comforteth him that is in affliction. Let your hearts
rejoice, O ye dwellers in the heavens. Horus who avenged his father
shall make the poison to retreat. That which is in the mouth of Rā shall
circulate, and the tongue of the Great God shall overcome [opposition].
The Boat of Rā standeth still and moveth not, and the Disk (_i.e._ the
Sun-god) is in the place where it was yesterday to heal Horus for his
mother Isis. Come to earth, draw nigh, O Boat of Rā, O ye mariners of
Rā; make the boat to move and convey food of the town of Sekhem (_i.e._
Letopolis) hither, to heal Horus for his mother Isis.... Come to earth,
O poison! I am Thoth, the firstborn son, the son of Rā. Tem and the
company of the gods have commanded me to heal Horus for his mother Isis.
O Horus, O Horus, thy Ka protecteth thee, and thy Image worketh
protection for thee. The poison is as the daughter of its own flame; it
is destroyed because it smote the strong son. Your temples are safe, for
Horus liveth for his mother." Then the child Horus returned to life, to
the great joy of his mother, and Thoth went back to the Boat of Millions
of Years, which at once proceeded on its majestic course, and all the
gods from one end of heaven to the other rejoiced. Isis entreated either
Rā or Thoth that Horus might be nursed and brought up by the goddesses
of the town of Pe-Tep, or Buto, in the Delta, and at once Thoth
committed the child to their care, and instructed them about his future.
Horus grew up in Buto under their protection, and in due course fought a
duel with Set, and vanquished him, and so avenged the wrong done to his
father by Set.
THE LEGEND OF KHENSU-NEFER-HETEP
AND THE PRINCESS OF BEKHTEN
Here for convenience' sake may be inserted the story of the Possessed
Princess of Bekhten and the driving out of the evil spirit that was in
her by Khensu-Nefer-hetep. The text of the Legend is cut in hieroglyphs
on a large sandstone tablet which was discovered by J.F. Champollion in
the temple of Khensu at Thebes, and was removed by Prisse d'Avennes in
1846 to Paris, where it is now preserved in the Bibliothèque Nationale.
The form of the Legend which we have is probably the work of the priests
of Khensu, about 1000 B.C., who wished to magnify their god, but the
incidents recorded are supposed to have taken place at the end of the
fourteenth century B.C., and there may indeed be historical facts
underlying the Legend. The text states that the king of Egypt,
Usermaātrā-setepenrā Rāmeses-meri-Amen, _i.e._ Rameses II, a king of the
nineteenth dynasty about 1300 B.C., was in the country of Nehern, or
Mesopotamia, according to his yearly custom, and that the chiefs of the
country, even those of the remotest districts from Egypt, came to do
homage to him, and to bring him gifts, _i.e._ to pay tribute. Their
gifts consisted of gold, lapis-lazuli, turquoise, and costly woods from
the land of the god,[1] and each chief tried to outdo his neighbour in
the magnificence of his gifts. Among these tributary chiefs was the
Prince of Bekhten, who, in addition to his usual gift, presented to the
king his eldest daughter, and he spake words of praise to the king, and
prayed for his life. His daughter was beautiful, and the king thought
her the most beautiful maiden in the world, and he gave her the name of
Neferu-Rā and the rank of "chief royal wife," _i.e._ the chief wife of
Pharaoh. When His Majesty brought her to Egypt she was treated as the
Queen of Egypt.
[Footnote: 1: _i.e._ Southern Arabia and a portion of the east coast of
Africa near Somaliland.]
One day in the late summer, in the fifteenth year of his reign, his
Majesty was in Thebes celebrating a festival in honour of Father Amen,
the King of the gods, in the temple now known as the Temple of Luxor,
when an official came and informed the king that "an ambassador of the
Prince of Bekhten had arrived bearing many gifts for the Royal Wife."
The ambassador was brought into the presence with his gifts, and having
addressed the king in suitable words of honour, and smelt the ground
before His Majesty, he told him that he had come to present a petition
to him on behalf of the Queen's sister, who was called Bentresht (_i.e._
daughter of joy). The princess had been attacked by a disease, and the
Prince of Bekhten asked His Majesty to send a skilled physician to see
her. Straightway the king ordered his magicians (or medicine men) to
appear before him, and also his nobles, and when they came he told them
that he had sent for them to come and hear the ambassador's request.
And, he added, choose one of your number who is both wise and skilful;
their choice fell upon the royal scribe Tehuti-em-heb, and the king
ordered him to depart to Bekhten to heal the princess. When the magician
arrived in Bekhten he found that Princess Bentresht was under the
influence of a malignant spirit, and that this spirit refused to be
influenced in any way by him; in fact all his wisdom and skill availed
nothing, for the spirit was hostile to him.
[Illustration: Stele relating the Story of the Healing of Bentresht,
Princess of Bekhten.]
Then the Prince of Bekhten sent a second messenger to His Majesty,
beseeching him to send a god to Bekhten to overcome the evil spirit, and
he arrived in Egypt nine years after the arrival of the first
ambassador. Again the king was celebrating a festival of Amen, and when
he heard of the request of the Prince of Bekhten he went and stood
before the statue of Khensu, called "Nefer-hetep," and he said, "O my
fair lord, I present myself a second time before thee on behalf of the
daughter of the Prince of Bekhten." He then went on to ask the god to
transmit his power to Khensu, "Pa-ari-sekher-em-Uast," the god who
drives out the evil spirits which attack men, and to permit him to go to
Bekhten and release the Princess from the power of the evil spirit. And
the statue of Khensu Nefer-hetep bowed its head twice at each part of
the petition, and this god bestowed a fourfold portion of his spirit and
power on Khensu Pa-ari-sekher-em-Uast. Then the king ordered that the
god should set out on his journey to Bekhten carried in a boat, which
was accompanied by five smaller boats and by chariots and horses. The
journey occupied seventeen months, and the god was welcomed on his
arrival by the Prince of Bekhten and his nobles with suitable homage and
many cries of joy. The god was taken to the place where Princess
Bentresht was, and he used his magical power upon her with such good
effect that she was made whole at once. The evil spirit who had
possessed her came out of her and said to Khensu: "Welcome, welcome, O
great god, who dost drive away the spirits who attack men. Bekhten is
thine; its people, both men and women, are thy servants, and I myself am
thy servant. I am going to depart to the place whence I came, so that
thy heart may be content concerning the matter about which thou hast
come. I beseech Thy Majesty to give the order that thou and I and the
Prince of Bekhten may celebrate a festival together." The god Khensu
bowed his head as a sign that he approved of the proposal, and told his
priest to make arrangements with the Prince of Bekhten for offering up
a great offering. Whilst this conversation was passing between the evil
spirit and the god the soldiers stood by in a state of great fear. The
Prince of Bekhten made the great offering before Khensu and the evil
spirit, and the Prince and the god and the spirit rejoiced greatly. When
the festival was ended the evil spirit, by the command of Khensu,
"departed to the place which he loved." The Prince and all his people
were immeasurably glad at the happy result, and he decided that he would
consider the god to be a gift to him, and that he would not let him
return to Egypt. So the god Khensu stayed for three years and nine
months in Bekhten, but one day, whilst the Prince was sleeping on his
bed, he had a vision in which he saw Khensu in the form of a hawk leave
his shrine and mount up into the air, and then depart to Egypt. When he
awoke he said to the priest of Khensu, "The god who was staying with us
hath departed to Egypt; let his chariot also depart." And the Prince
sent off the statue of the god to Egypt, with rich gifts of all kinds
and a large escort of soldiers and horses. In due course the party
arrived in Egypt, and ascended to Thebes, and the god Khensu
Pa-ari-sekher-em-Uast went into the temple of Khensu Nefer-hetep, and
laid all the gifts which he had received from the Prince of Bekhten
before him, and kept nothing for his own temple. This he did as a proper
act of gratitude to Khensu Nefer-hetep, whose gift of a fourfold portion
of his spirit had enabled him to overcome the power of the evil spirit
that possessed the Princess of Bekhten. Thus Khensu returned from
Bekhten in safety, and he re-entered his temple in the winter, in the
thirty-third year of the reign of Rameses II. The situation of Bekhten
is unknown, but the name is probably not imaginary, and the country was
perhaps a part of Western Asia. The time occupied by the god Khensu in
getting there does not necessarily indicate that Bekhten was a very long
way off, for a mission of the kind moved slowly in those leisurely days,
and the priest of the god would probably be much delayed by the people
in the towns and villages on the way, who would entreat him to ask the
god to work cures on the diseased and afflicted that were brought to
him. We must remember that when the Nubians made a treaty with
Diocletian they stipulated that the goddess Isis should be allowed to
leave her temple once a year, and to make a progress through the country
so that men and women might ask her for boons, and receive them.