_Egyptian Traditions._--While the tradition of the Deluge holds so
considerable a place in the legendary memories of all branches of the
Aryan race, the monuments and original texts of Egypt, with their many
cosmogonic speculations, have not afforded one, even distant, allusion
to this cataclysm. When the Greeks told the Egyptian priests of the
Deluge of Deucalion, their reply was that they had been preserved from
it as well as from the conflagration produced by Phaeton; they even
added that the Hellenes were childish in attaching so much importance to
that event, as there had been several other local catastrophes
resembling it. According to a passage in Manetho, much suspected,
however, of being an interpolation, Thoth or Hermes Trismegistus had
himself, before the cataclysm, inscribed on stelae in hieroglyphical and
sacred language the principles of all knowledge. After it the second
Thoth translated into the vulgar tongue the contents of these stelae.
This would be the only Egyptian mention of the Deluge, the same Manetho
not speaking of it in what remains to us of his "Dynasties," his only
complete authentic work. The silence of all other myths of the Pharaonic
religion on this head render it very likely that the above is merely a
foreign tradition, recently introduced, and no doubt of Asiatic and
Chaldean origin. "Thus," says M. Maury, "the Seriadic land, where the
passage in question places these hieroglyphic columns, might very well
be no other than Chaldea. This tradition, though not in the Bible,
existed as a popular legend among the Jews at the beginning of our era,
which confirms our supposition; as the Hebrews might have learnt it
during the Babylonian captivity. Josephus tells us that the patriarch
Seth, in order that wisdom and astronomical knowledge should not perish,
erected, in prevision of the double destruction by fire and water
predicted by Adam, two columns, the one in brick, the other in stone, on
which this knowledge was engraved, and which subsisted in the Seriadic
country." This history is evidently only a variety of the Chaldean
legend of the terra-cotta tables bearing the divine revelations, and the
principles of all sciences which Ea ordered Khasisatra to bury before
the Deluge, "in the city of the Sun at Sippara," as we have had it above
in the extracts from Berosus.
Nevertheless, the Egyptians did admit a destruction by the gods of
primal men on account of their rebellion and their sins. This event was
related in a chapter of the sacred books of Thoth, those famous Hermetic
books of the Egyptian priesthood which are graven on the sides of one of
the inmost chambers of the funereal hypogeum of Seti the First at
Thebes. The text has been published and translated by M. Edouard
Naville.[55]
The scene is laid at the close of the reign of the god Ra, the earliest
terrestrial reign, according to the system of the priests of Thebes, the
second, according to that of the priests of Memphis, which is the one
followed by Manetho, who placed at the very origin of things the reign
of Phtah, previous to that of Ra. Irritated by the impiety and crimes of
the men he has made, the god assembles the other gods to hold counsel
with them in profound secrecy, "so that men should not see it, nor their
heart be afraid."
"Said by Ra to Nun:[56] 'Thou, the eldest of the gods, of whom I am
born, and ye ancient gods, here are the men who are born from
myself; they speak words against me, tell me what you would do in
the matter; lo, I have waited, and have not slain them before
hearing your words.'
"Said by the Majesty of Nun: 'My son Ra, a greater god than he who
has made him and created him, I stand in great fear of thee; do thou
deliberate alone.'
"Said by the Majesty of Ra: 'Lo, they take to flight through the
country, and their hearts are afraid....'
"Said by the Gods: 'Let thy face permit, and let those men be
smitten who plot evil things, thine enemies, and let none [of them
remain.]'"
A goddess, whose name has unfortunately disappeared, but who seems to
have been Tefnut, identified with Hathor and Sekhet, is then sent to
accomplish the sentence of destruction.
"This goddess left, and slew the men upon the earth.
"Said by the Majesty of this God: 'Come in peace, Hathor; thou hast
done [what was ordained thee.]'
"Said by this Goddess: 'Thou art living; for I have been stronger
than men, and my heart is satisfied.'
"Said by the Majesty of Ra: 'I am living, for I will rule over them
[and I will complete] their ruin.'
"And lo, Sekhet, during several nights, trod their blood under-foot
as far as the town of Ha-klinen-su (Heracleopolis.)"
But the massacre ended, the anger of Ra was appeased; he began to repent
of what he had done. A great expiatory sacrifice succeeded in finally
calming him. Fruits were gathered throughout Egypt, bruised, and their
juice mingled with human blood, 7000 pitchers being filled with it and
presented to the god.
"And lo, the Majesty of Ra, the god of Upper and Lower Egypt, comes
with the gods in three days of sailing to see these vases of drink,
after he had ordered the goddess to slay men.
"Said by the Majesty of Ra: 'This is well; I will protect men
because of it.' Said by Ra: 'I raise my hand concerning this, to say
that I will no more destroy men.'
"The Majesty of Ra, the god of Upper and Lower Egypt, commanded in
the middle of the night to overthrow the liquid in the vases, and
the fields were completely filled with water by the will of this
god. The goddess arrived in the morning, and found the fields full
of water. Her face grew joyous, and she drank abundantly and went
away satisfied. She no more perceived any men.
"Said by the Majesty of Ra to the goddess: 'Come in peace, gracious
goddess.'
"And he caused the young priestesses of Amu to be born.
"Said by the Majesty of Ra to this goddess: 'Libations shall be made
to her at each of the festivals of the new year, under the
superintendence of my priestesses.'
"Hence it comes that libations are made under the superintendence of
the priestesses of Hathor by all men since the ancient days."
Nevertheless, some men have escaped the destruction commanded by Ra, and
renewed the population of the earth. As for the solar god who reigns
over the world, he feels himself old, sick and weary; he has had enough
of living among men, whom he regrets not to have completely annihilated,
but has sworn henceforth to spare.
"Said by the Majesty of Ra: 'There is a smarting pain that torments
me; what is it then that hurts me?' Said by the Majesty of Ra: 'I am
living, but my heart is weary of being with them [men], and I have
in no way destroyed them. That destruction is not one that I have
made myself.'
"Said by the gods who accompany him: 'Away with lassitude, thou hast
obtained all thou didst desire.'"
The god Ra decides, however, to accept the help of the men of the new
human race who offer themselves to him to combat his enemies, and a
great battle takes place, out of which they come victorious. But in
spite of this success the god, disgusted with earthly life, resolves to
quit it for ever, and has himself carried into heaven by the goddess
Nut, who takes the form of a cow. Then he creates a region of delight,
the fields of Aalu, the Elysium of Egyptian mythology, which he peoples
with stars. Entering into rest, he assigns to different gods the
government of different parts of the world. Shu, who is to succeed him
as king, is to administer celestial matters with Nut; Seb and Nun
receive the charge of the things of earth and water. Finally, Ra, a
sovereign who has voluntarily abdicated, goes to dwell with Thoth, his
favourite son, on whom he has bestowed the superintendence of the
under-world.
Such is this strange narrative, "in which," as M. Naville has well said,
"in the midst of fantastic and often puerile inventions, we do
nevertheless find the two terms of existence as understood by the
ancient Egyptians. Ra begins with earth, and passing through heaven
stops in the region of profundity, Ament, in which he apparently wishes
to sojourn. This then is a symbolic and religious representation of
life, which for every Egyptian--and especially for a royal
conqueror--had to begin and end like the sun. This explains the chapter
being inscribed in a tomb."
Hence it was the last portion of the narrative--which we can analyse but
very briefly--the abdication of Ra and his retreat, first, in heaven,
next in the Ament, a symbol of death which is to be followed by
resurrection as the setting of the sun by its rising--it is this which
constituted its interest in the conception of the doctrine of a future
life, illustrated in the decoration of the interior of the tomb of Seti
I. For our present purpose, on the contrary, it is the beginning of the
story which constitutes its importance, it is that destruction of primal
humanity by the gods of which no mention has been hitherto found
elsewhere. Although the means of destruction employed by Ra are quite
dissimilar, although he does not proceed by submersion but by a massacre
in which the lion-headed goddess Tefnut or Sekhet, the dreadful form of
Hathor, is the agent, the other sides of the story bear a sufficiently
striking analogy to that of the Mosaic or Chaldean Deluge to show that
it is the special and very individual form assumed in Egypt by that
tradition. In both we have human corruption exciting divine wrath, and
punished by a divinely ordained annihilation of the race, from which
there escapes but a very small number destined to give birth to a new
humanity. Finally, after the event an expiatory sacrifice appeases the
celestial anger, and a solemn covenant is made between men and the
deity, who swears never so to destroy them again. To me, the agreement
of these principal features outweighs the divergence in detail. And we
have also to observe how singularly akin is the part ascribed by the
Egyptian priest to Ra with that assigned in the epic poem of Uruk to the
god Bel, in the deluge of Khasisatra. The Egyptians believed, as did
other nations, in the destruction of mankind; but as inundation meant
for them prosperity and life, they changed the primitive tradition; the
human race, instead of perishing by water, was otherwise exterminated;
and the inundation--that crowning benefit to the valley of the
Nile--became in their eyes the sign that the wrath of Ra was appeased.