THE ASTRONOMICAL BASIS OF THE EGYPTIAN PANTHEON.
It will be abundantly clear from the statements made in the foregoing
chapter that, as I have said, the main source of information touching
things Egyptian consists no longer in writings like the Vedas, but in
the inscriptions on the monuments, and the monuments themselves. It
is true that, in addition to the monuments, we have the Book of the
Dead, and certain records found in tombs; but, in the main, the source
of information which has been most largely drawn upon consists in the
monuments themselves--the zodiacs being included in that term.
It has been impossible, up to the present time, to fix with great
accuracy the exact date of the earliest monuments. This should not
surprise us. We must all feel that it is not a question of knowing so
little--it is a question of knowing anything at all. When one considers
that at the beginning of this century not a sign on any of these
monuments was understood, and that now the wonderful genius of a small
number of students has enabled Egyptologists to read the inscriptions
with almost as much ease and certainty as we read our morning papers:
_this_ is what is surprising, and not the fact that we as yet know so
little, and in many cases lack certainty.
But we already know that probably some of these monuments are nearly
6,000 years old. This has been determined by the convergence of many
lines of evidence.
[Illustration: TABLET OF KINGS AT ABYDOS.]
One of the many points already profoundly investigated by Egyptologists
has been the chronology of the kings of Egypt from their first monarch,
whom all students recognise as Mena or Menes. All these inquirers
have come to the definite conclusion that there was a King Mena, and
that he reigned a long time ago; but with all their skill the final
result is that they cannot agree to the date of this king within a
thousand years; one reason among many others being that in these early
days astronomy was a science still to be cultivated, and therefore
the early Egyptians had not a perfect mode of recording; perhaps even
they had no idea of a hundred years as we have. We are told that all
their reckonings were the reckonings of the reigns of kings. This
is difficult to believe, and the statement may be a measure of our
ignorance of their method of record. We now, fortunately for us, have
a calendar which enables us to deal with large intervals of time, but
still we sometimes reckon, in Egyptian fashion, by the reigns of kings
in our Acts of Parliament. Furthermore, Egypt being then a country
liable to devastating wars, and to the temporary supremacy of different
kingly tribes, it has been very difficult to disentangle the various
lists of kings so as to obtain one chronological line, for the reasons
that sometimes there were different kings reigning at the same time
in different regions. The latest date for King Mena is, according to
Bunsen, 3600 years B.C.; the earliest date, assigned by Boeckh, 5702
years B.C.; Unger, Brugsch, and Lepsius give, respectively, 5613, 4455,
3892. For our purpose we will call the date 4000 B.C.--that is 6,000
years ago--and for the present consider this as the start-point for the
long series of remains of various orders to which reference has been
made, and from which alone information can be obtained.
We come now to deal with the ideas of the early inhabitants of the Nile
valley. We find that in Egypt we are in presence absolutely of the
worship of the Sun and of the accompanying Dawn. Whatever be the date
of the Indian ideas to which we have referred, we find them in Egypt in
the earliest times. The ancient Egyptians, whether they were separate
from, or more or less allied in their origin to, the early inhabitants
of India, had exactly the same view of Nature-worship, and we find in
their hymns and the lists of their gods that the Dawn and the Sunrise
were the great revelations of Nature, and the things which were most
important to man; _and therefore everything connected with the Sunrise
and the Dawn was worshipped_.
[Illustration: HARPOCRATES.]
Renouf, one of the latest writers on these subjects, says:[3] "I fear
Egyptologists will soon be accused, like other persons, of seeing the
dawn everywhere," and he quotes with approbation this passage from Max
Müller relating to the Veda:--
"I look upon the sunrise and sunset, on the daily return of day and
night, on the battle between light and darkness, on the whole solar
drama in all its details, that is acted every day, every month, every
year, in heaven and in earth, as the principal subject."
But we must now go somewhat further into detail. The various apparent
movements of the heavenly bodies which are produced by the rotation
and the revolution of the earth, and the effects of precession, were
familiar to the Egyptians, however ignorant they may have been of their
causes; they carefully studied what they saw, and attempted to put
their knowledge together in the most convenient fashion, associating it
with their strange imaginings and their system of worship.
Dealing with the earth's rotation, how did the Egyptians picture
it? How was this interaction, so to speak, between the earth and the
sky mythologically represented? They naturally would be familiar
with the phenomena of dawn and sunset, more familiar certainly with
the phenomenon of dawn than we are, because they had a climate much
better suited for its study than ours. There can be no doubt that the
wonderful scenes which they saw every morning and evening were the
first things which impressed them, and they came to consider the earth
as a god, surrounded by the sky--another god.
[Illustration: RA. MIN-RĀ. AMEN-RĀ.]
I have next to point out that, the sun being very generally worshipped
in Egypt, there were various forms of the sun-god, depending upon the
positions occupied in its daily course. We have the form of Harpocrates
at its rising, the child sun-god being generally represented by the
figure of a hawk. When in human form, we notice the presence of a
side lock of hair. The god Rā symbolises, it is said, the sun in his
noontide strength; while for the time of sunset we have various names,
chiefly Osiris, Tum, or Atmu, the dying sun represented by a mummy and
typifying old age. The hours of the day were also personified, the
twelve changes during the twelve hours being mythically connected with
the sun's daily movement across the sky.
[Illustration: SEBAK-RĀ. CHNEMU-RĀ.]
We often find Rā compounded with other names, and in these forms of the
god we possibly get references to the sun at different times of the
year. Amen-Rā, Sebak-Rā, and Chnemu-Rā are cases in point. The former
undoubtedly refers to the sun at the summer solstice. Min-Rā is an
ithyphallic form.
The names given by the Egyptians to the sun then may be summarised as
follows:--
Hor, or Horus, or Harpocrates, and Chepera (morning sun).
Rā (noon).
Tum or Atmu (evening sun).
Osiris (sun when set).
[Illustration: ANUBIS, OR SET.]
[Illustration: ANUBIS-OSIRIS.]
I have not space to quote the many hymns to the Sun-gods which have
been recovered from the inscriptions, but the following extracts will
show that the worship was in the main at sunrise or sunset--in other
words, that the _horizon_ was in question:--
"Thou disk of the Sun, thou living God! There is none other beside
thee. Thou givest health to the eyes through thy beams, Creator of
all beings. _Thou goest up on the eastern horizon of the heaven_ to
dispense life to all which thou hast created--to man, four-footed
beasts, birds, and all manner of creeping things on the earth where
they live. Thus they behold thee, and they go to sleep when thou
settest."
Hymn to Tmu--
"Come to me, O thou Sun,
Horus of the horizon, give me help."
Hymn to Horus--
"O Horus of the horizon, there is none other beside thee,
Protector of millions, deliverer of tens of thousands."
Hymn to Rā-Tmu-Horus--
"Hail to thee of the double horizon, the one god living by Maāt.... I
am the maker of heaven and of the mysteries of the twofold horizon."
[Illustration: OSIRIS (AS A MUMMY).]
Hymn to Osiris--
"O Osiris! Thou art the youth _at the horizon_ of heaven daily, and
thine old age at the beginning of all seasons....
"The _ever-moving_ stars are under obedience to him, and so are _the
stars which set_."
[Illustration: OSIRIS SEATED.]
Hymn to Rā--
"O Rā! in thine egg, radiant in thy disk, shining forth from the
horizon, swimming over the steel (?) firmament.
"Tmu and Horus of the horizon pay homage to thee (Amen-Rā) in all
their words."
So far we have dealt with the powers of sunlight; but the ancient
Egyptians, like ourselves, were familiar with the powers of darkness or
of the underworld. The chief god antithetical to the sun was variously
named--Sit, Set, Sut, Anubis, Typhon, Bes; and a host of other names
was given to him. As I shall show, the idea of darkness was associated
with the existence of those stars which never set, so that even here
the symbolism was astronomical.
[Illustration: VARIOUS FORMS OF BES--AS WARRIOR, MUSICIAN, AND BUFFOON.]
The contrast between the representations of Bes and of the other forms
suggests that the former was imported. In the form of Typhon the
goddess Taurt is represented as a hippopotamus, while for Anubis the
emblem is a jackal.
In all illustrations of funeral ceremonies the above-mentioned figure
largely. In the Book of the Dead we find that in the representations
of the judgment of the dead, besides Osiris we have Anubis, both
responsible for the weighing of the soul.
With the moon we find two gods connected--Thothlunus and
Khons-lunus--though the connection is not a very obvious one.
Thoth is also associated with the Egyptian year, and is variously
represented; all forms, however, are based upon the ibis.
For the stars generally we find a special goddess, Sesheta.
[Illustration: KHONS-LUNUS. THOTH-LUNUS. THE GODDESS SESHETA.]
Thoth as the sacred scribe and Sesheta as the star-goddess are often
represented together engaged in writing.
Associated with the phenomena of morning and evening we find the
following divinities. The attributes stated are those now generally
accepted. This is a subject which will occupy us in the sequel.
_Isis_ represents the Dawn and the Twilight; she prepares the way for
the Sun-god. The rising sun between Isis and Nephthys = morning.
[Illustration: THE WEIGHING OF THE SOUL BY HORUS AND ANUBIS IN PRESENCE
OF OSIRIS.]
_Nephthys_ is the Dawn and the Twilight, sometimes Sunset.
_Shu_ is also the Dawn, or sunlight, Tefnut represents the coloured
rays at dawn. Shu and Tefnut are the eyes of Horus. Shu was also
called "Neshem," which means green felspar, in consequence of the
green colour observed at dawn. The green tint at dawn and sunset are
represented further by the "sycamore of emerald." Sechet is another
goddess of the Dawn, the fiery Dawn.
[Illustration: THOTH AND SESHETA WRITING THE NAME OF RAMESES II. ON THE
FRUIT OF THE PERSEA.
(_Relief from the Ramesseum at Thebes._)]
The _red_ colours at sunset were said to be caused by the blood
flowing from the Sun-god when he hastens to his suicide. A legend
describes Isis as stanching the blood flowing from the wound inflicted
on Horus by Set.
[Illustration: CLEOPATRA AS THE GODDESS ISIS.]
_Hathor_ is, according to Budge, identified with Nu or Nu-t, the sky,
or place in which she brought forth and suckled Horus. She is the
female power of Nature, and has some of the attributes of Isis, Nu-t,
and Maāt.
[Illustration: ISIS (SEATED).]
We next have to gain some general idea of the Egyptian cosmogony--the
relation of the sun and dawn to the sky; this is very different from
the Indian view. The Sky is Nu or Nu-t, represented as a female figure
bending over Seb, the Earth, with her feet on one horizon and her
finger-tips on the other. Seb is represented by a recumbent figure,
while the sky, represented by the goddess Nu-t, is separated from the
earth by Shu, the god of air or sunlight. The daily journey of the
sun is represented by a god in a boat traversing the sky from east to
west. The goddess Nu-t is variously symbolised. Sometimes there is a
line of stars along her back, which clearly defines her nature, but
sometimes she is represented by a figure in which the band of stars is
accompanied by a band of water. This suggests the Jewish idea of the
firmament. We read of the firmament in the midst of the waters, which
divided the waters from the waters, the waters above being separated
from the waters below the firmament.
[Illustration: THE RISING SUN HORUS BETWEEN ISIS AND NEPHTHYS.]
It would seem that it was not very long before the Egyptians saw
that the paths of the sun and stars above the horizon were extremely
unequal: in the case of the sun, at different times of the year; in the
case of the stars, depending upon their position near the equator or
either pole. In this way, perhaps, we may explain a curious variant of
the drawing of the goddess Nu-t, in which she is represented double, a
larger one stretching over a smaller one.
Not only the Sun-gods, but the stars, were supposed to travel in boats
across the firmament from one horizon to the other. The underworld was
the abode of the dead; and daily the sun, and the stars which set, died
on passing to the regions of the west, or Amenti, below the western
horizon, to be born again on the eastern horizon on the morrow. In this
we have the germ of the Egyptian idea of immortality.
[Illustration: THE GODDESS NU-T.]
Among other gods which may be mentioned are Chnemu, the "Moulder," who
was thought to possess some of the attributes of Rā; and Ptah, the
"Opener," who is at times represented with Isis and Nephthys, and then
appears as a form of Osiris.
We can now begin to glimpse the Egyptian mythology.
Seb, the Earth, was the husband of Nu-t, the Sky; and the Sun-and
Dawn-gods and-goddesses were their children, as also were Shu
representing sunlight, and Tefnut representing the flames of dawn.
Maāt, the goddess of law, was the daughter of Rā.
[Illustration: THE GODDESS NU-T REPRESENTED DOUBLE.]
[Illustration: VARIOUS FORMS OF SHU.]
We know several points regarding Egyptian customs independently of the
astronomical inscriptions, properly so-called, to which I have called
attention. We know that there were sacrifices at daybreak; we know that
stars were watched before sunrise, and heralded the dawn; we know that
these observations were among the chief duties of the sacrificial
priests, and it is obvious that a knowledge of star-places, as well as
star-names, must have been imperative to these morning watchers, who
eventually compiled lists of decans--that is, lists of belts of stars
extending round the heavens, the risings of which followed each other
by ten days or so. These are the exact equivalents of the moon-stations
which the Indians, Arabians, and other peoples invented for the same
purpose. We also find, more or less indeterminately from inscriptions
in some graves at Thebes, that the daily risings of the chief stars
were observed very carefully throughout the year. Unfortunately the
inscriptions in question are very difficult indeed to co-ordinate.
There have been various efforts made to connect them with certain
stars, but, so far, I am afraid they have resisted all efforts to get a
complete story out of them, though certain very important points have
been made out. These points I shall consider later.
[Illustration: FORMS OF PTAH, THE GOD OF MEMPHIS.]
It is not too early to point out here that there is evidence that the
Egyptian pantheon, as I have stated it, had not a simple origin. There
are traditions that many of the gods came from a region indeterminately
described as the land of Pun-t. Among these gods are Chnemu, Amen-Rā,
Hathor, and Bes. On page 28 I have associated Bes with Typhon,
following several authorities, but if they are right it is very
difficult to understand his _rôle_. It may also be added that the
temple-evidence supports the view of his foreign origin.[4]
When one comes to consider the Rig-Veda and the Egyptian monuments
from an astronomical point of view, one is struck by the fact that, in
both, the early worship and all the early observations related to the
horizon. This was true not only of the sun, with which so far we have
exclusively dealt, but it was equally true of the stars which studded
the general expanse of sky.
In Egypt, then, as in India, the pantheon was astronomical and, to
a very large extent, solar in origin. I shall have to show that the
remainder--nearly the whole of it--had its origin in stellar relations.