THE MYTHOLOGY OF ISIS AND OSIRIS.
A long parenthesis has been necessary in order to inquire fully into
the yearly festivals of the Egyptian priests, the relation of the
feasts to the rising of stars, and the difficulties which arose from
the fact that a true year was not in use till quite late.
It is now time to return to the subject-matter of Chapters XIX.-XXII.
in order to show that since the goddesses chiefly worshipped at
Denderah and Thebes were goddesses whose cult was associated with the
year, it is open to us to inquire whether we may not use the facts with
which we are now familiar to obtain a general idea of that part of
mythology which refers to them.
I will begin by taking a certain group of goddesses.
1. _There is evidence that many of the goddesses under discussion
personified stars in exactly the same way that Isis personified Sirius
and Mut_ γ _Draconis._--If we leave Denderah and Thebes for the moment,
and consider the pyramid region of Gîzeh, we find that the temples
there, which are associated with each of the pyramids, are not oriented
to Sirius; but yet they are temples of Isis, pointing due east;
therefore they could not have pointed to the same Isis worshipped at
Denderah, or the same Hathor worshipped at Thebes.
Thus, in the case of the temple of Mut at Thebes, of Isis at Denderah,
and the temples of Isis at the pyramids, and in many towns facing East,
obviously different stars were in question, whatever the mythology
might have been.
[Illustration: BLACK GRANITE STATUE OF SEKHET FROM THE TEMPLE OF MUT AT
THEBES.]
Further, it seems quite certain that the star symbolised as Isis in the
pyramid worship was the star Antares (Serk-t) heralding the autumnal
equinox, and it is probable that the Pleiades (Nit) were so used at the
vernal equinox.
[Illustration:
THE GODDESS TAURT. THE GODDESS SERK-T OR SELK-T.
(_Both with horns and disk._)]
2. _There is evidence that many of the names of these goddesses are
pure synonyms._--That is to say, we have the same goddess (or the same
star) called different names in different places, and associated with
different animal emblems, in consequence of the existence of different
totems in different nomes. I have already referred to the symbolism
of the goddess Mut. In one form she is a hippopotamus; in another
she has a cow's horns and disk. The temple of Hathor at Denderah was
probably associated with the crocodile or the hippopotamus; so that
from the symbolism referred to we get the suggestion that the goddess
Mut was really the Theban form of the goddess Hathor at Denderah.
There is another delineation which shows that even more clearly: it
is a drawing of the goddess with both the lion's and crocodile's
head. One of the most wonderful things to be seen at Thebes is that
marvellous collection of the statues of Sechet in the temple of Mut,
all of them lion-headed. From evidence of this kind in addition to the
temple inscriptions already referred to, we get a clear indication of
the fact that Apet, Mut, Taurt, Sechet, Bast, were the same goddess
under different names, and I may add that they, in all probability,
symbolised the star γ Draconis.
[Illustration: NIT. NIT (ANOTHER FORM). BAST.]
3. _All these goddesses have a special symbol._--Hathor wears the cow's
head and the horns with the disk. Taurt, the hippopotamus-goddess,
is also represented with horns and disk. The horns and disk are also
worn by Serk-t, Sati and Rā-t, the wife of the sun-god Rā; many other
goddesses might be added to this list. Indeed, it looks as if all the
goddesses who are stated to be variants either of Isis or Hathor have
this same symbol.
This generic symbolism suggests that the names Isis and Hathor are
themselves generalisations, meaning an accompaniment of sunrise,
whether that light be the dawn, or an heliacally-rising star, or even
the moon. The generic symbol is the sun's disk and horns, which, I
think, may not impossibly be a poetic development of the sign for
sunrise. Isis and Hathor are two different ways of defining or thinking
about a rising star--that is, a star heralding the sunrise, for such
were the rising stars _par excellence_.
[Illustration: ANUQA. SATI.]
All the goddesses so symbolised are either different forms of Isis
or Hathor, or represent goddesses who personify or bring before us
mythologically stars the rising of which was observed at the dawn at
some time of the year or another.
But it must be added that these goddesses are not always represented
with this head-gear, possibly because they had other functions besides
their astronomical one.
The extent of this variation may be gathered from the two forms of
Neith or Nit given on page 290.
[Illustration: ISIS NURSING HORUS. (The last form is Serk-t-Isis, the
scorpion goddess.)]
4. _Many of the goddesses are represented as Isis nursing Horus._--It
is very important not to forget that stars were chiefly observed rising
in the dawn, and that mythologically such an event was represented by
the Egyptians as Isis (the rising star-goddess) nursing Horus (the
rising sun-god). The sun was supposed to be a youth in the morning, to
be very young therefore at the moment of rising, and the goddess Isis
was supposed to be then nursing him. Many of the goddesses are thus
portrayed. I may mention Renen-t, Serk-t, Rā-t, Amen-t, as instances.
Thus I hold that we get in this series of goddesses the statement, put
mythologically, that certain stars to which the goddesses were sacred
rose heliacally at some time of the year or another. Of course the
record is far from complete, and probably it will become more complete
when inquiries are made from this point of view. The original symbolism
is that Isis or Hathor is a star rising in the dawn, watching over the
sun or taking him from his cradle; and the young Horus, the rising sun,
is, of course, the son of Isis. The emblem of the mother and child is
thus shown to have been in established use for the expression of high
religious thought at least 5000 years ago.
These and other facts may be brought together in a tabular form, to
show what apparently the complete mythology of Isis meant.
ISIS = ANYTHING LUMINOUS TO THE EASTWARD HERALDING SUNRISE.
DAWN. MOON. γ DRACONIS. ANTARES. α COLUMBÆ.
(3000 B.C.) (3700 B.C.) (Before 3000 B.C.)
Isis Isis Isis Serk-t Teχi
Hathor (hawk and (N. Egypt) Amen-t
hippopotamus)
Mut (vulture)
Sechet } Lion or α Centauri
Bast } cat 3700 B.C.
Menkh (S. Egypt)
Tafnet
Apet
Nebun
SIRIUS. DOUBTFUL.
(After 3000 B.C.) (Probably late.)
Isis Anuqa
Hathor (cow) Hak }
Rā-t Haka }
Hak-t }
Hequet}
Maloul
It will be seen that in the case of Isis we are not dealing merely with
a rising star, while, so far as I know, Hathor is limited to stars.
If we accept the general statement regarding Isis, namely, that it was
a term applied to anything appearing to the eastward and heralding
sunrise, many of our difficulties at once disappear. The Isis of the
pyramid-temples and of the smaller temple of Denderah symbolised
different celestial bodies, though they served the same purpose.
The Hathor of the greater temple of Denderah, and the Hathor of Dêr
el-Bahari, symbolised different celestial bodies, but their function
was the same. On the other hand, the Hathor of Denderah and the Mut
of Thebes were neither different divinities, nor did they personify
different stars; they were simply local names of γ Draconis.
We are thus enabled to understand the doubling of the symbolism in the
case of Hathor. The hippopotamus and the cow generically are dealt with
as rising stars; specifically we deal with γ Draconis in one case, and
Sirius in the other.
The evidence goes to show that these two stars were those to the
risings of which very great importance was attached, but they did not
stand alone. We get another form of Isis (referring, it is possible,
to the star α Columbæ, before even Sirius was used), so that we have a
northern star and a southern star observed at the same time--the two
eyes of Rā. Idle other goddesses which have not yet been worked out
probably refer to one or other of these stars, or to others which lie
more to the south. These are represented rather in the temples above
the first cataract than in those below. This fact will be enlarged upon
in the sequel.
The study of orientation, then, combined with mythology, supplies us
with other rising stars besides Sirius, and, indeed, although the
date given by Riot for the first heliacal rising of Sirius at the
solstice--3285 B.C.--seems a very remote one, it is practically certain
that α Columbæ was previously used, because before that time it was
conveniently situated to give warning of the sunrise at the Summer
solstice, as Sirius was subsequently. The worship would be kept up
after the utility had gone.
Dümichen's view with regard to the local cult of Hathor and its
astronomical origin is not very different from mine. He writes:--
"Der Cult der Göttin Hathor geht in die ältesten Zeiten der
ägyptischen Geschichte zurück. Schon die Pyramideninschriften erwälmen
eine Heliopolitische Hathor und Priester und Priesterinnen dieser
Göttin werden in denselben Grabkapellen nicht selten genannt. Die
Hathor war keine speciell lokalisirte Gottheit, sondern eine allgemein
in sämmtlichen Tempeln Aegyptens verehrte Form eines Cultes, dessen
Urgedanke, im weitesten Sinne, die Auffassung des weiblichen Principes
gegenuber dem männlichen Principe der Gottheit war. In dieser
Auffassung erscheint sie geradezu identisch mit der Isis, weshalb auch
beiden Göttinnen die Kuh das geheiligte Thier war. Da in jeder Stadt,
vor allen aber in jeder Nomos-Hauptstadt eine Hathor als Schutzgöttin
des betreffenden Ortes aufgeführt wird, so ist es erklärlich, dass
die lokalen Formen dieser Göttin in den Inschriften der Tempel in
grösster Anzahl aufgeführt werden. Im Tempel von Edfu werden Beispiels
halber an der Decke des Pronaos über 300 Namen der Göttin mit ihren
lokalen Beziehungen hergezählt mit besonderer Bevorzugung derjenigen
lokalen Formen, welche in den einzelnen Nomos-Hauptstädten sich eines
hervorragenden Cultes erfreuten. Die letzteren berühren vorzüglich
eine Sieben-Zahl von Hathoren, welche als die grossen bezeichnet
werden und von denen fast in allen grösseren Tempeln Listen an den
Wänden zu lesen sind.
"In der älteren Zeit bezeichnet Hathor einen kosmischen Urbegriff.
Schon ihr Name verräth aufs Deutlichste die kosmogonische Wurzel. Ha.
t. hor wörtlich übersetzt "Wolnung des Horus--Behausung Gottes" d. i.
die Welt, die Darstellung Gottes in der sichtbaren Welt, die Natur, in
welcher die Gottheit wirksam ist."[83]
Before I pass on, it will, I think, be well to point out that the
argument I have used to show that Isis was really a generic name is
enforced when we consider the allied points relating to Osiris.
It is quite clear that some of the gods symbolised setting stars. We
already know that the setting sun became Osiris, Atmu, or Tmu, and,
whatever the names, they were all represented as mummies. But the sun
was not the only body that was symbolised as Osiris; the moon and stars
were at times symbolised in the same way. We may, indeed, venture to
make the following generalised statement:--
OSIRIS = ANY CELESTIAL BODY BECOMING INVISIBLE.
SUN MOON PLANET STARS BODIES PALING AT DAWN.
SETTING. WANING. SETTING. SETTING. Stars. Planets.
Osiris Osiris Venus Khons-Osiris Sah-Osiris Venus
as Osiris Ptah-Osiris Star of Osiris
Min-Osiris
It will be observed with what fulness the antithesis of Isis is
indicated.
I have already pointed out that the possible temple of Osiris at the
pyramids points to the westward, but our special reference now is to
stars. When we come to look for this mummy-symbolism among the gods
other than sun-gods (it is entirely and remarkably absent among the
goddesses), we find Khons, Ptah, and Khem pictured as mummies; that
is, they become a sort of Osiris. Supposing that these gods were
worshipped, there would probably be temples dedicated to them; still,
the absence of such temples would not be decisive, since they might
have been destroyed. However, very fortunately for this inquiry, there
are two temples still extant at Thebes, known as the temples of Khons
and Ptah. If there is anything, then, in the idea that there must
be some relation with the western horizon in the case of these gods
represented as mummies, these temples should point to the west. _They
do point to the west._
Very fortunately, also, these temples have a pretty good history: that
is, one knows, within some hundreds of years at all events, when they
were founded. Therefore, by help of those astronomical methods to which
I have previously referred, it is not difficult to get at the stars.
They turn out to be a southern star--Canopus--in the case of the temple
of Khons, and Capella in the case of the temple of Ptah. Now, there
is another very important temple at Thebes, it is a temple without a
name, at right angles to the temple of Mut. This also points to the
west. Although the evidence is not complete, it clearly suggests that
this temple was dedicated to the god Min or Khem, and was oriented
to the star Spica; so that at Thebes alone it looks as if the three
gods represented by mummies--different stellar forms of Osiris--Khons,
Ptah and Min, have all been run to earth in the three stars Canopus,
Capella, and Spica.
_Provisionally, we way hazard the assertion that the mummy form marks
a setting star, as the horns and disk mark a rising one. We get the
antithesis between Osiris and Isis._
[Illustration: ISIS, OSIRIS AND HORUS.]
We gather, then, that the wonderful old-world myth of Isis and Osiris
is astronomical from beginning to end, although Osiris in this case is
not the sun, but the moon. But I have not yet finished with the mummy
form; the waning moon is also Osiris. It is supposed to be dying from
the time of full moon to new moon. The Egyptians in their mythology
were nothing if not consistent; the moon was called Osiris from the
moment it began to wane, as the sun was Osiris so soon as it began to
set. A constellation paling at sunrise was also Osiris.
[Illustration: A "CHANGE OF CULT" AT LUXOR.]
I have previously noted the symbolism of Sirius-Hathor as a cow in
a boat associated with the constellation of Orion. There is a point
connected with this which I did not then refer to, but which is of
extreme importance for a complete discussion of the question now
occupying us. We get associated with the cow in the boat, Orion (Sah)
as Horus, but in other inscriptions we get Orion as a mummy--that is
to say, in the course of Egyptian history the same constellation is
symbolised as a rising sun at one time and a setting sun at another.
Now, that must have been so if the Egyptian mythology were consistent
and rested on an astronomical basis, because Sah rose in the dawn
in one case and faded at dawn in the other. From the table giving a
generalised statement with regard to Osiris, similar to that we have
already considered for Isis, it looks as if the mythology connected
with Osiris is simply the mythology connected with any celestial
body becoming invisible. We have the sun setting, the moon waning, a
planet setting, stars setting, constellations fading at dawn. We see,
therefore, that the Egyptian mythology was absolutely and completely
consistent with the astronomical conditions by which they were
surrounded; that, although it is wonderfully poetical, in no case is
the poetry allowed to interfere with the strictest and most accurate
reference to the astronomical phenomena which had to be dealt with.
The argument, then, for the use of Isis as a generic name is greatly
strengthened by the similar way in which the term Osiris, which is
acknowledged to be a generic name, is employed.
Now to return to Denderah in the light of the preceding discussion.
A curious and interesting thing is that we find that the temple of
_Isis_, which is very much ruined, does not contain emblems of the
Sirius worship; but that all these appear in the temple of _Hathor_,
which, of course, pointing as it does to the north-east, could never
have received any light from a star south of the equator. There has
been a change of cult.
On the other hand, the temple of Isis presents so many emblems thought
to relate to the worship connected with γ Draconis, to which the temple
of Hathor was in all probability directed, that it was named the
Typhoneum by the French Commission.
There has been an apparent change of _rôle_ and cult, due either to the
fact that in time the observation of the rising of Sirius superseded
that of the rising of γ Draconis, or that the worship of Set was
replaced.
With regard to this change of cult, we moderns should have no
difficulty. We go to Constantinople and see Mahommedans worshipping
in St. Sophia; we go to Greece or Sicily and find Christian worship
in many of the old temples. Thus the change of cult in Egypt, which
I claim to have demonstrated on astronomical grounds at Denderah,
is a thing with which we are perfectly familiar nowadays. The great
point, however, is that in Egypt the change of cult might depend upon
astronomical change--upon the precession of the equinoxes, as well as
upon different schools of religious or astronomical thought. We gather
from this an idea of the wonderfully continuous observations which were
made by the Egyptians of the risings and settings of stars, because,
if the work had not been absolutely continuous, they would certainly
never have got the very sharp idea of the facts of precession which
they undoubtedly possessed; and it is also, I think, pretty clear
that future astronomical study will enable us to write the history of
those changes which are now hidden by that tremendous mythological
difficulty, which has not yet been faced. That, of course, is not the
only difficulty, because the question is clouded by the absence of
authentic dates and the perpetual reference to the past which is met
with in all the monuments. The Egyptians were much more anxious to
bring back to knowledge what happened 1000 years before than to give an
idea of the current history of the country.
We have, then, at length arrived at a possible explanation of the
difficulties acknowledged in regard to the temples of Denderah in
Chapters XIX. and XX.
It is, briefly, that at some epoch observations of the star Sirius
replaced, or were added to, those made of γ Draconis. Mythologically, a
new Isis would be born.
This point will be referred to later; one of the longest-lasting
astro-theological strifes in Egypt was the fight for supremacy between
the priests of Amen and the priests of Set. At Denderah the former were
ultimately victorious, and hence the change of cult.
This suggestion is based on the following considerations:--
(1) While the Denderah Hathor was represented by the disk and horns
on a hippopotamus, at Thebes (the city of the "Bull" Amen) Hathor is
represented by a cow with a like head-dress.
(2) Isis, represented originally as a goddess with the two feathers of
Amen, standing in a boat, is now changed to a cow with the disk and
horns.
(3) Hathor was the "cow of the western hills" of Thebes. It is in these
hills that the temple Dêr el-Bahari lies; and this temple, if oriented
originally to Sirius, would have been founded about 8000 B.C., when
Sirius at rising would have an amplitude of 20° S. of E.
(4) A temple was built or restored later at Denderah, and Sirius with
the cow's horns and disk became the great goddess there; and when
her supremacy all over Egypt became undoubted, her birthplace was
declared--at Denderah--to have been Denderah.[84]
(5) In the month-list at the Ramesseum the first month is dedicated to
Sirius, the third to Hathor. This is not, however, a final argument,
because _local_ cults may have been in question.
(6) "Set" seems to have been a generic name applied to the northern
(? circumpolar) constellations, perhaps because _Set_ = darkness, and
these stars, being _always visible_ in the night, may have in time
typified it. Taurt, the hippopotamus, was the wife of Set. The Thigh
was the thigh of Set, etc. γ Draconis was associated therefore with
Set, and the symbolism for Set-Hathor was the hippopotamus with horns
and disk. Now if, as is suggested, Sirius replaced γ Draconis, and the
cow replaced the hippopotamus, the cult of Set might be expected to
have declined; and as a matter of fact the decline of the worship of
Set, which was generally paramount under the earlier dynasties, and
even the obliteration of the emblems on the monuments, are among the
best-marked cases of the kind found in the inscriptions.
(7) The _Isis_ temple of Denderah was certainly oriented to Sirius; the
_Hathor_ temple was as certainly _not_ so oriented. And yet, in the
restorations in later times (say, Thothmes III.--Ptolemies), the cult
has been made Sirian, and the references are to the star which rises at
the rising of the Nile.
So far, then, mythology is with me; but there is a difficulty.
According to the orientation theory, the cult must follow the star;
this must be held to as far as possible. But suppose the processional
movement causes the initial function of a star to become inoperative,
must not the cult--which, as we assume, had chiefly to do with the
heralding of sunrise at one time of the year or other--change? And if
the same cult is conducted in connection with another star, will not
the old name probably be retained?
I do not see why the Egyptians should have hesitated to continue the
same cult under a different star when they apparently quite naturally
changed Orion from a form of Osiris (Sah-Osiris) and a mummy (as he
was represented when the light of his stars was quenched at dawn at
the rising of Sirius) to that of Sah-Horus (when in later times the
constellation itself rose heliacally).
And, moreover, the antagonism of rival priesthoods has to be
considered. It is extremely probable that the change of a Set temple at
Denderah into a Theban Hathor-temple was only one example of a system
generally adopted, at least in later times.