EGYPTIAN MYTH AND LEGEND

With Historical Narrative, Notes on Race Problems, Comparative Beliefs, etc.

by

Donald Mackenzie

Gresham Publishing Co., London

[1907]

CHAPTER VIII

The Religion of the Stone Workers

Memphite Religion--The Cult of Ptah--Ethical Beliefs----Pharaoh worshipped as a God--"Husband of his Mother"--Magical Incantations--"Mesmerizing the Gods"--The Earliest Mastabas--Endowment of Tomb Chapels--The Servants of the Dead--Scenes of Everyday Life--Zoser's Two Tombs--The First Pyramid--An Architect who became a God--Inspiration of Egyptian Religion--How it promoted Civilization--Mythology of the Stone Builders----Ptah and Khn-The Frog Goddess--A Prototype of Isis--A Negroid Deity--Khnassociated with Khufu (Cheops).

WHEN Old Memphis became the leading city of United Egypt the religious beliefs of the mingled peoples were in process of fusion and development. Commerce was flourishing, and ideas were being exchanged as freely as commodities. In the growing towns men of many creeds and different nationalities were brought into close personal contact, and thought was stimulated by the constant clash of opinions. It was an age of change and marked progress. Knowledge was being rapidly accumulated and more widely diffused. Society had become highly organized, and archaic tribal beliefs could no longer be given practical application under the new conditions that obtained throughout the land. A new religion became a necessity-at any rate existing beliefs had to be unified and systematized in the interests of peace and order, especially in a city like Memphis with its large and cosmopolitan population.

The cult which began to mummify the dead had evidently formulated a creed which appealed to the intellectual classes. Beliefs regarding the after-life took definite shape. The "land of shades" was organized like the land of Egypt. Ideas of right living and good government prevailed, and the growth of ethical thought was reflected in the conception of a Judge of the Dead who justified or condemned men after consideration of their actions during life. The attributes of the principal gods were defined; their powers and their places were adjusted; they were grouped in triads and families; and from the mass of divergent beliefs was evolving a complex mythology which was intended not only to instruct but to unite the rival beliefs prevailing in a community.

Egyptian religion as a whole, however, was never completely systematized at this or any subsequent period. Each locality had its own theological system. The old tribal gods remained supreme in their nomes, and when they were grouped with others; the influence at work was more political than intellectual in character. The growth of culture did not permeate all classes of society, and the common people, especially in rural districts, clung to the folk beliefs and practices of their ancestors. A provincial nobleman, supported by the priests, secured the loyalty of his followers therefore by upholding the prestige of their ancient god, who could be linked, if needs be, with the deity of another tribe with whom a union had been effected. If the doctrines of a rival creed influenced the beliefs of the people of a particular district the attributes of the rival god were then attached to their own. When Ptah, for instance, ceased to make intellectual appeal as a creation artificer he was exalted above Ra and the other gods, whom he was supposed to have called into existence by uttering magical words.

Ptah, as we have seen, was linked with Osiris. The combined deity was at once the god of the industrial and agricultural classes, and the Judge of the Dead. He was the chief deity of the new religion which controlled the everyday life of the people. He was the Revealer who made city life possible by promoting law and order as a religious necessity, and by instructing the people how to live honourably and well. He ordained the fate of all men; he rewarded the virtuous and punished the sinners. Masters were required to deal humanely with their servants, and servants to perform their duties with diligence and obedience. Children were counselled to honour their parents lest they might complain to the god and he should hear them.

The supremacy of Ptah was not yet seriously threatened by the sun god Ra, whose cult was gathering strength at Heliopolis. For a full century the ascendancy of the Memphite cult was complete and unassailable. The influence of the north was thus predominant. The Horite religion, which was a form of sun worship, had been displaced; it was overshadowed by the Ptah Osiris creed. Apparently the people of Lower Egypt had achieved an intellectual conquest of their conquerors. The Osirian Paradise was a duplicate of the Delta region, and the new creed was strongly influenced by Osirian beliefs which had prevailed before Mena's day.

Although great rivalry existed between the various cults throughout the land, the people were united in reverencing the Pharaoh. He was exalted as a god; indeed he was regarded as an incarnation of the ruling deity. Until the Fourth Dynasty the monarch was the living Osiris; then he became the earthly manifestation of Ra, the sun god. The people believed that a deity must needs take human form to associate with mankind. His Ka, therefore, entered the king's body as the king's Ka entered his statue. In temple scenes we find the people engaged in worshipping Pharaoh; in fact, the Pharaoh might worship himself--he made offerings to his Ka, which was the Ka of a god.

The idea of the divinity of kings was, no doubt, a survival of ancestor worship. Families worshipped the spirit of their dead sire, and tribes that of their departed leader. But the Pharaoh was not like other men, who became divine after death; he was divine from birth. His father had been the ruling god and his mother the god's wife. On the walls of temples elaborate scenes were carved to remind the people of the divine origin of their ruler. At the marriage ceremony the king impersonated the god, and he was accompanied by his divine attendants. As Ptah Tanen he wore "the high feathers" and two ram's horns, and carried the holy symbols; as Osiris he appeared with crook and flail.; as Ra he was crowned with the sun disk. The queen was thus married to the god within his temple. In sculptured scenes depicting royal births we see goddesses in attendance as midwives, nurses, and foster mothers. This close association with deities was supposed to continue throughout the Pharaoh's life; he was frequently shown in company of gods and goddesses.

When the king died, the spirit of the god passed to his successor. The son, therefore, according to Egyptian reasoning, became his own father, and, in the theological Sense, "husband of his mother". Horus, who was born after Osiris was slain, was "the purified image of his sire". In one of the religious chants the same idea is given expression when it is declared that "the god Seb was before his mother". The new Pharaoh, on ascending the throne, became doubly divine, because both ideas regarding the divinity of kings were perpetuated at the same time.

The worship of a particular Pharaoh did not cease when he died. Like other departed souls he required the service of the living. His priests must assist him to reach the Osirian Paradise of Aalu, or the sun bark of Ra. Even Ra had to be assisted to pass through the perilous hour-divisions of the night. Indeed all the good forces of Nature had to be continually prompted by men who desired to be benefited by them; similarly the evil forces had to be thwarted by the performance of magical ceremonies and the repetition of' magical formul Egyptian religion was based upon belief in magic.

Pharaoh's body was therefore mummified, so that his soul might continue to exist and be able to return to reanimate the bandaged form. Food offerings were given regularly for the sustenance of the Ka. Magical ceremonies, which were religious ceremonies, were performed to cause the gods to act and to speak as was desired--to imitate those who impersonated them upon earth. The priests were supposed, as it were, to mesmerize the gods when they went through their elaborate ceremonies of compulsion and their ceremonies of riddance.

It was considered necessary to afford secure protection for the Pharaoh's mummy; his enemies might seek to dismember it with purpose to terminate the life of the soul. Substantial tombs were therefore erected, and the old brick and wood erections which were constructed for the kings at Abydos went out of fashion.

A tomb chamber was hewed out of solid rock, and over it was built an oblong platform structure of limestone called a mastaba. The mummy was lowered down the shaft. which was afterwards filled up with sand and gravel and closed with masonry. This low and flat-roofed building was large enough to accommodate at least a hundred bodies) but it was made solid throughout with the exception of the secret shaft. Robbers would have to wreck it completely before the hiding place of the body could be discovered. On the east side there was a false door through which the Ka could pass when it came from) or departed towards, the western land of shades. In time a little chapel was provided, and the false door was placed at the end of it. This apartment was used for the performance of the ceremonies associated with the worship of the dead; mourners came with offerings, and met in presence of the invisible Ka.

The statue was concealed in an inner chamber, which was built up, but occasionally narrow apertures were constructed through which food and drink were given to the Ka. But only to kings and rich men could this service be rendered for a prolonged period, so the practice ultimately evolved of providing the dead with models of offerings which by a magical process gave sustenance to the hungry spirit.

Mortuary chapels were endowed as early as the First Dynasty. Priests were regularly engaged in worshipping dead kings and princes who had made provision in their wills for the necessary expenses. The son of one monarch in the Fourth Dynasty devoted the revenues of a dozen towns to maintain the priesthood attached to his tomb. This custom created grave financial problems.

In a few generations the whole land might be mortgaged to maintain mortuary chapels, with the result that a revolution involving a change of dynasty became an economic necessity.

Hearken! ye kings, while horror stalks the land,
Lo! your poor people fall a ready prey
Made weak by your oppression, even in death-
Burdened and bruised and terrorized; their lands
Tax ridden for these temples ye endowed,
That fawning priests might meek obeisance make
And render ceaseless homage to your shades.

The walls of the chapel were either sculptured in low relief or painted with scenes of daily life, and from these we gather much of what we know regarding the manners and customs of the ancient people. But such works of art were not intended merely to be decorative or to perpetuate the fame of the dead. It was desired that those scenes should be duplicated in Paradise. The figures of farm servants sowing and reaping corn, of artisans erecting houses, and cooks preparing meals, were expected to render similar services to the departed soul. Magical texts were inscribed with purpose to ensure this happy condition of affairs; others called down curses on the heads of tomb robbers.

Kings and nobles had no pleasure in the prospect that they would have to perform humble tasks in the Nether World. They desired to occupy there the exalted stations which they enjoyed upon earth. It was necessary, therefore, to have numerous employees so that their mansions might be erected, their fields cultivated, and their luxuries provided as of old.

The custom at first obtained of slaying a number of servants to accompany the great dignitary to Paradise. These poor victims were supposed to be grateful, because they were to be rewarded with assured immortality. But the shedding of blood was rendered unnecessary when the doctrine obtained that substitutes could be provided by sculptors and painters.

Another mortuary custom was to provide little figures, called Ushebtiu, "the answerers", inscribed with magical formul which would obey the dead and perform whatever duties he desired of them in Paradise.

SERVITORS BRINGING THEIR OFFERINGS

From the bas-relief in the Mastaba of Ti, Sakhara

"USHEBTIU" FIGURES OF VARIOUS PERIODS

1. Limestone: made for Ahmes I (XVIII Dynasty). 2. Limestone (XII Dynasty). 3. Painted alabaster: about 1100 B.C. 4. Porcelain, inscribed for an official (XXVI Dynasty). 5. Zoned alabaster, probably made for a king: about 1200 B.C. 6. Limestone: about 800 B.C. 7. Painted limestone: about 550 B.C.

(British Museum)

These were ultimately shaped in mummy form, and in the later Dynasties were made of glazed ware, because wooden figures suffered from the ravages of the white ant.

Many toy-like figures of servants are found in early tombs. Here we discover, perchance, the model of a nobleman's dwelling. An ox is being slain in the backyard. In the kitchen the staff is engaged cooking an elaborate repast; a little fellow devotes himself entirely to a goose which he turns on a spit before the fire. We have a glimpse of high life in another scene. The nobleman has feasted, and he sits at ease in a large apartment listening to singers and harpers. A dancing girl comes out to whirl before him, while her companions keep time to the music by clapping their hands. Meanwhile artisans are busy in their workshops. We see a potter moulding a vessel of exquisite shape, while near at hand a carpenter saws wood with which he intends to construct an elaborate article of furniture. Boats are rocking at a pier, for the soul may desire to sail down the Nile of the Nether World. Here. in fact, is a boat pursuing its way; a dozen strenuous oarsmen occupy the benches, while the steersman stands erect at the helm with the guiding rope in his hands; armed men are on guard, and the nobleman sits with a friend below an awning on a small deck in the centre of the boat, calmly engaged playing a game of draughts.

King Zoser had two tombs erected for himself. One is a great brick mastaba at Abydos, which may have been a "soul house" in the chapel of which his "double" was worshipped; the other, which is constructed of limestone, is situated on the desert behind Memphis. The latter is of particular interest to students of Egyptian history.

It is a terraced structure nearly 200 feet in height, formed by a series of mastabas of decreasing size superimposed one above another. This wonderful building has been called "the step pyramid of Sakkara"; it is not only the first pyramid which was erected in Egypt, but the earliest great stone structure in the world.

So much attention is paid to the three sublime pyramids at Gizeh that Zoser's limestone tomb is apt to be overlooked. Yet it is of marked importance in the history of the country. It was constructed nearly a hundred years before Khufu (Cheops) ascended the throne, and the experience gained in undertaking a work of such vast dimensions made possible the achievements of later times. The architect was the renowned Imhotep, one of the world's great men. His fame was perpetuated in Egypt until the Saite or Restoration period, when he was worshipped as the god called by the Greeks "Imuthes". He was an inventive and organizing genius, and a statesman who exercised much influence at the Court of King Zoser. Like Solomon, he was reputed to be the wisest man of his Age. He was the author of a medical treatise, and he left behind him a collection of proverbs which endured as long as the old Egyptian language. As a patron of learning his memory was revered by the scribes for over two thousand years, and it was their custom before beginning work to pour out from their jars a libation to his spirit.

The step pyramid was Imhotep's conception. He prepared the plans and overlooked the work of construction. No doubt, too, he was responsible for the organization of the army of labourers and artisans who were employed for a prolonged period in erecting this enduring memorial of a great monarch.

Such a vast undertaking is a sure indication of the advanced character of the civilization of the times. Much wealth must have accumulated in the royal exchequer. The country was in a settled and prosperous condition., owing to the excellent system of government and the activity of administrators. It was no small task to bring together thousands of workmen, who had to be housed and fed and kept under control. Skilled tradesmen were employed, who had been trained in quarrying and dressing stone. Evidently masonry had flourished in Memphis for a considerable period. There were hundreds of overseers experienced in the organization of labour, and large numbers of educated scribes conversant with the exact keeping of accounts.

Education was no longer confined to the ruling classes. We know that there were schools in Memphis. Boys were instructed in "the three R's", and in a papyrus of maxims it was quaintly remarked that they could "hear with their backs", an indication as to the manner in which corporal punishment was inflicted. The system of writing was the cursive style called "hieratic", which originated in pre-Dynastic times as a rough imitation in outline of hieroglyphics. A knowledge of elementary arithmetic was required in the ordinary transactions of business. Some corrected exercises have survived. Advanced pupils were instructed in geometry--which had its origin in Egypt--in mensuration, and in the simpler problems of algebra.

As the Egyptians were an intensely practical people, school studies were specialized. Boys were trained for the particular profession in which they were to be employed. If they were to become business men they attended commercial classes. The number of "trial pieces" which have been found show that young sculptors attended technical schools, as did also artists and metal workers. In the temple colleges the future officials and lawyers and doctors were made conversant with the accumulated knowledge and wisdom of the age. Education was evidently controlled by the priests.

Memphis was a hive of organized industry. The discipline of business pervaded all classes, and everywhere law and order were promoted. Pharaoh was no idler. His day was fully occupied in the transaction of public business, and to every prince was allotted a responsible post, and his duties had to be efficiently performed. The nation was in its young manhood; the foundations had been securely established of a great civilization, which was to endure for some thirty centuries.

It may be said that the royal house of the Old Kingdom was established upon a rock. When the Pharaoh's builders discarded brick, and began to quarry and hew stones, Egyptian civilization made rapid progress. It had had its beginnings in the struggle with Nature in the Nile valley. An increasing population was maintained under peaceful conditions when the problem of water distribution was solved by the construction of canals. These had to be controlled, and the responsibility of a regulated flow was imposed upon the Pharaoh. Good government, therefore, became a necessity; a failure of water caused famine and insurrection. To those who toiled and those who protected the toiler Nature gave a bountiful reward. More food was produced than was required for home consumption. The surplus yield of corn was, as we have seen, the means of promoting trade, which made Egypt a wealthy country. As capital accumulated, the progress of knowledge was assured, and men entered upon those higher pursuits which promote moral and intellectual advancement.

Egypt might have continued happily on the even tenor of its way as an agricultural and trading country, but its civilization could never have attained so high a degree of perfection if its arts and industries had not been fostered and developed. We may riot think highly of Egyptian religion, of which, after all, we have but imperfect knowledge, but we must recognize that it was the inspiration of the architects and craftsmen whose sublime achievements we regard with wonder and admiration after the lapse of thousands of years. It was undoubtedly a civilizing agency; it promoted culture and refinement, and elevated mankind to love beauty for its own sake. Egyptian art flourished because it was appreciated and was in demand.

The surplus wealth of Egypt was expended largely for religious purposes. Temple building kept those wonderful old architects and sculptors constantly engaged. an ever-increasing class of skilled workers had also to be trained, disciplined, and organized. Men of ability were brought to the front and were judged on their own merits. There is no place for pretenders in the world of Art. When the Pharaohs, therefore, undertook the erection of temples and tombs they not only ensured regularity of labour, but also stimulated intellectual effort, with results that could not have been otherwise than beneficial to society at large.

We may well regard the conquest of stone as one of the greatest conquests which the Egyptians achieved. In our Introduction we have suggested that the new industry may have been introduced by the cave-hewing pre-Semitic inhabitants of southern Palestine. The remarkable skill manifested by the earliest stone workers of Egypt with almost dramatic suddenness was evidently the result of long experience. Deft workmanship was accomplished from the outset; stones were measured and dressed with wonderful accuracy and skill. The changes which took place in the burial customs during the early Dynasties also suggest that influences from without were being felt in the ancient kingdom.

Whatever the origin of the stone workers may have been, it is evident that they were closely associated with Memphis at a very early period. As we have seen, the art of stone working and stone building on a sublime scale was first displayed by the worshippers of Ptah, the artificer god. It is of special interest to find, therefore, that Manetho has preserved those persistent Egyptian traditions which connect Memphis with the new industry. He credited Zoser, the builder of the step pyramid at Sakkara, with the introduction of stonework; he also recorded that the first temple in Egypt was erected at Memphis to Ptah by King Mena. The city's name of "White Walls" suggests that the fortress was constructed of limestone.

We know now that stone was used at Abydos before Zoser's day--not, however, until after the conquest of the north--but the traditional association of Memphis with the new industry is none the less significant. The probability that a colony of Memphite artisans settled in the vicinity of the Assouan quarries, and introduced stone working into Upper Egypt, is emphasized by the worship of Khn the god of the First Cataract, who bears so striking a resembling to Ptah. He was similarly regarded as the modeller of the world. Like Ptah, he was associated with the chaos egg, and he is depicted shaping the first man upon his potter's wheel.

Khnwas merged at an early date with the ram god Min, for he is invariably shown with ram's horns or a ram's head. He was a Great Father, and represented the male principle. His consort is Hekt, the frog-headed goddess, who is evidently of great antiquity. The Egyptians believed that frogs were generated spontaneously from Nile-fertilized mud, and they associated Hekt with the origin of life. This quaint goddess was one of the "mothers" who was supposed to preside at birth, and so persistent was the reverence shown her by the great mass of the people that she was ultimately fused with Hathor. In Coptic times Hekt was a symbol of the resurrection.

Another goddess associated with Khnwas named Sati. Her title "Lady of the Heavens" links her with Nut and Hathor. She is usually depicted as a stately woman wearing a cow's horns and the crown of Upper Egypt; she is "the queen of the gods".

An island goddess, called Anukt, belongs to the same group. She has negroid attributes and wears a crown of feathers.

It is apparent that this arbitrary grouping of deities at the First Cataract was the direct result of the mingling of peoples of different origin. Hekt represents a purely Egyptian cult, while Sati is evidently one of the forms of the Great Mother deity of the earliest civilized people in the Nile valley; she resembles closely the historic Isis. Anukt, on the other hand, was probably of Nubian origin, and may have been introduced by those dusky settlers from the south whose aggressive tendencies caused so much concern at the royal Court from time to time. The theory that Khnwas the god of the quarries, and builders especially, is supported not only by his resemblance to Ptah, but also by the fact that the Pharaoh who erected the greatest pyramid at Gizeh was called KhnKhufu; this is the monarch whom the Greeks called Cheops.

EGYPTIAN MYTH AND LEGEND

With Historical Narrative, Notes on Race Problems, Comparative Beliefs, etc.

by

Donald Mackenzie

Gresham Publishing Co., London

[1907]

CHAPTER VII

Death and the Judgment

The Human Triad--Ghosts--Spirits of the Living--Why the Dead were given Food--Souls as Birds--The Shadow and the Name--Beliefs of Divergent Origin--Burial Customs--The Crouched Burial--Secondary Interment--Extended Burials--Mummies--Life after Death--Two Conceptions--Souls in the Sun Boat--The Osirian Paradise--journey to the Other World --Perils on the Way--Conflicts with Demons--The River of Death--The judgment Hall--Weighing the Heart--The Happy Fields.

IN the maze of Egyptian beliefs there were divergent views regarding the elements which constitute the human personality. One triad was a unity of the Ka, spirit; the Khu, soul; and Khat, the body. Another grouped Khaybet, the shadow, with Ba, the soul, and Sahu, the mummy. The physical heart was called Hati; it was supposed to be the seat of the intelligence, and its "spirit" was named Ab, which signified the will and desires. The "vital spark", or controlling force, was symbolized as the Sekhem, and the Ran was the personal name.

The Ka of the first triad is the most concrete conception of all. It was probably, too, the oldest. The early people appear to have believed that the human personality combined simply the body and the spirit. In those tomb scenes which depict the birth of kings the royal babe is represented by two figures-the visible body and the invisible "double". The Ka began to be at birth; it continued to live on after death.

But a human being was not alone in possessing a Ka. Everything that existed was believed to have its "double". A fish or other animal had a Ka; so also had a tree; and there were spirits in water, in metals, in stone, and even in weapons and other articles manufactured by man. These spirits were invisible to all save the seers, who were able to exercise on occasion the "faculty" which Scottish Highlanders call "second sight".

It was conceived that the Ka could leave the human body during sleep, or while the subject lay in a trance. It then wandered forth and visited people and places, and its experience survived in memory. Dreams were accounted for in this way as actual happenings. When a man dreamt of a deceased friend, he believed that his Ka had met with the Ka of the dead, held converse with it, and engaged in the performance of some Other-World duty. Sometimes the wandering Ka could be observed at a distance from where the sleeper reposed. It had all the appearance of the individual, because it was attired in the "doubles" of his clothing and might carry the "double" of his staff. Ghosts, therefore, included "the spirits of the living", which were not recognized to be spirits until they vanished mysteriously. They might also be simply heard and not seen.

In the story of Anpu and Bata is contained the belief that the Ka could exist apart from the body. Its habitation was a blossom, and when the petals were scattered the younger brother fell dead. He revived, however., when the seed was placed n a vessel of water. This conception was associated with belief in the transmigration of souls. Bata entered a new state of existence after he left his brother.

During normal life the Ka existed in the human body. It was sustained by the "doubles" of everything that was partaken of. After death it required food and drink) and offerings were made to it at the grave. The practice of feeding the dead continues in Egypt even in our own day.

In ancient times a cult believed that the Ka could be fed by magic. Mourners or ancestor worshippers who visited the tomb simply named the articles of food required, and these were immediately given existence for the spirit. The "good wishes" were thus considered to be potent and practical.

It was essential that the dead should receive the service of the living, and those who performed the necessary ceremonies and made the offerings were called the "servants". Thus the Egyptian word for "priest" signified a "servant". But the motive which prompted the mourners to serve the departed was not necessarily sorrow or undying affection, but rather genuine fear. If the Ka or ghost were neglected, and allowed to starve, it could leave the grave and haunt the offenders. Primitive man had a genuine dread of spirits, and his chief concern was ever to propitiate them, no matter how great might be the personal sacrifice involved.

Sometimes a small "soul house" was provided by the wayside for the wandering Ka, but oftener an image of wood or stone was placed for its use in the grave. The statues of kings which have been found in their tombs were constructed so that their disembodied spirits might be given material bodies, and those which they caused to be erected in various parts of the kingdom were primarily intended for a similar purpose and not merely to perpetuate their fame, although the note of vanity is rarely absent in the inscriptions.

The Khu, or "soul", was a vague conception. It was really another form of the Ka, but it was the "double" of the intellect. will, and intentions, rather than the "double" of the physical body. The Khu was depicted as a bird, 1 and was called "the bright one" or "the glorious one".

The Ba of the second triad was a conception uniting both the Ka and the Khu. It is represented in bird form with a human head, hovering over the Sahu, or mummy, on which it gazes wistfully, always seeking to re-enter the bandaged form. Like the Ka, it required nourishment, which was provided, however, by the goddess of the consecrated burial ground.

The Khaybet, or shadow, is evidently the survival of an early belief. It is really another manifestation of the Ka. Like all primitive peoples, the archaic Egyptians believed that their shadows were their souls. Higher conceptions evolved in time, but their cultured descendants clung to the old belief, which was perpetuated by folk customs associated with magical practices. Spells were wrought by casting shadows upon a man., and he might be insulted or injured if an offence were committed against his shadow.

The Ran, or name, was also a manifestation of the Ka. Power could be exercised by uttering the name, because there was magical influence in those words which were believed to have spiritual "doubles". A personal name was the spirit identified; its service was secured when the name was uttered. The spirit was the name and the name was the spirit. If a magician desired to work evil against an individual, he made use of the name when uttering potent magical formul The dead were similarly conjured up when their names were spoken in invocations; evil spirits were cast out by those who knew their names. 2 To guard himself against wizards who uttered "words of power", or verbal spells, the Egyptian therefore considered it necessary to have two names--the big name and the little name, or the true name and the good name. He kept his "big, true name" secret, because it was the Ran; his "good little name" was his nickname, and was not a part of his living being.

The naming ceremony was conducted in secret. The child's fate was bound up in the true name and his character was influenced by it. After it was conferred, a nickname was used, but the true name was the grave name and was uttered when the welfare of the spirit was secured by the utterance of magical spells which "opened the way" in the land of the dead. The gods had Rans also. When Isis obtained the secret name of Ra, she became his equal.

The divergent conceptions regarding the soul in Egyptian religion arose from the mingling of beliefs caused by the mingling of peoples, and also the Egyptian tendency to cling to every belief, or form of belief, which evolved in the course of time in Egypt. A people who believed in the existence of "doubles" and in the transmigration of souls had many vague and complex conceptions. Incoherencies were a feature of their religious beliefs. It must be borne in mind, at the same time, that our review covers a vast period of time, during which various religious cults exercised supreme influence in moulding Egyptian thought. One cult predominated at one period; another cult arose in turn to teach its own peculiar tenets, with the result that all beliefs were ultimately accepted. This process is clearly indicated by the various burial customs and the complex religious ceremonies which prevailed in different ages.

As we have seen, the early people buried their dead crouched up in shallow graves with due provision of nourishment and implements. 3 They appear to have believed that the Ka remained beside the body until the flesh decayed. Then it either ceased to be, or it haunted the cemetery. Among primitive peoples at the present day much concern is evinced regarding the ghosts of the newly dead. When a negro, for instance, is questioned about his remote ancestors, he is unable to express an opinion as to whether or not their spirits continue to exercise any influence upon the living, but he trembles if asked about his dead father.

The Egyptian tree worshippers conceived of a tree goddess which gave food cakes and poured out drink to disembodied Kas. The influence of this ancient cult is traced in the Osiris and Bata folk tales. In late Dynastic times tree worship was revived when the persisting beliefs of the common people gained ascendancy, and it has not yet wholly disappeared in the Delta region. The sacred tree and the holy well are still regarded with reverence.

The. Horites, or Dynastic Egyptians, who pressed northward on their gradual campaign of conquest, introduced a new burial custom. Instead of digging shallow graves they erected brick-lined tombs, in which the dead were laid upon their backs, fully extended, clad in state, and adorned with articles of jewellery. In the inscriptions the Ka and Khu are referred to. But no attempt was made, even in the First and Second Dynasties, to preserve the body from decay, and sumptuous offerings were placed in the tombs,

Another burial custom involved secondary interment, as was the case in those European districts where early graves have been found to contain disconnected skeletons. In Egypt attempts were sometimes made to arrange the bones in proper position, but they were often heaped in confusion. It appears that temporary interment was a ceremony of riddance, the object being probably to hasten the departure of the Ka. Dismemberment was also practised, and many graves show that decapitation was effected after death.

In one of the sacred books of ancient Egypt the mutilation of dead bodies is referred to with horror. "I shall not be destroyed," we read, "my head will not be cut off, nor my tongue taken out, nor will the hair of my head or my eyebrows be shaved off. My body will endure for all time."

The revolt against dismemberment took place at the beginning of the Third Dynasty, about 3000 B.C. Massive stone tombs were then constructed and the bodies of the dead were mummified. The idea was either that the Ka would ultimately return and cause the dead to live again, or that the existence of the soul in the Nether World depended upon the existence of the body upon earth. The embalming of the dead ultimately became general throughout Egypt, but the belief in dismemberment survived in the practise of disjointing one of the mummy's feet. During the Middle Kingdom period the dead were laid on their left sides, as if to peer through the Osiris or Horus eyes depicted outside the mummy cases.

Herodotus, who visited Egypt in the fifth century before Christ, found the people "adhering contentedly to the customs of their ancestors, and averse to foreign manners". He related that when an influential man died, the females of the household smeared their hands and faces with dirt, and ran through the streets with their clothes in disorder, beating their bodies and lamenting aloud. The men behaved in similar manner after the corpse was removed from the house.

Embalmers were licensed to practise their profession, and they displayed much ingenuity and surgical skill. When a body was carried to them, they produced models of mummies and arranged a price. The quality of their work depended on the amount of money expended by the dead man's friends.

The costliest method of embalming was as follows. The brain was extracted through the nostrils with the aid of instruments and after the infusion of a chemical preparation. Then a stone knife was used to make an incision on one side of the body. The liver, heart, lungs, and intestines were immediately drawn out, and, after being cleansed, they were steeped in palm wine and sprinkled with rich perfume. The body was dried, and stuffed with powdered myrrh, cassia, , and sewn up. It was afterwards covered with nitre for seventy days. Then it was washed all over and carefully wrapped in bandages which had been dipped in a strong gum. As soon as it was carried back to the home it was placed in a large coffin, shaped like a human form, which was inscribed with magical charms and decorated with sacred symbols and figures of gods and goddesses. The face of the dead was carved upon the lid; in the Roman period it was painted.

A cheaper method of embalmment was to inject a chemical preparation before the body was covered with nitre. At the end of seventy days the intestines were drawn out. Nothing then remained except the skin and bones; the flesh had been eaten away by the nitre. Poor people could only afford to have a cheap preservative injected into the veins, after which the body was left in nitre for the usual period.

The intestines were placed in four canopic jars, on the lids of which were often shaped the heads of the four protecting gods, who were the sons of Horus, and represented the north, south, east, and west. These were Amset, with human face, who guarded the stomach and large intestines; Hapi, with dog's head, who guarded the small intestines; Dmef, with jackal's head, who guarded lungs and heart, and Kebeh-senuf, the hawk-headed, who guarded the liver and gall bladder. These jars were placed in a chest and deposited in the tomb. The organs they contained were those which were believed to have caused the various sins to be committed.

The funeral procession was a solemn and touching spectacle. All the family were present, and women mourners wailed aloud on the way to the cemetery on the western bank of the Nile. The mummy was drawn upon a sledge. When the tomb was reached, the coffin was set up on end, facing the south, and an elaborate ceremony was gone through. It was conducted by the chief mourner, who recited the ritual from a papyrus roll, while responses were made by the relatives. Two females represented Isis and Nepthys, for a part of the ceremony was a reproduction of the scene enacted around the body of Osiris when it was restored and prepared for burial. The dead had also to be instructed how to reach the Egyptian heaven. The journey could not be accomplished in safety without the aid of magical formul So these were spoken into the ears of the corpse, as was probably the custom in the days of crouched burials. But the danger was ever present that the dead would fail to remember all the priestly instructions which were repeated over them. The formul were therefore inscribed on the coffin and on the walls of the tomb, and as time went on it became customary to prepare rolls of papyrus, which were ultimately collected into The Book of the Dead. This papyrus might be wrapped under the mummy bandages, or else laid within the coffin. A bull was slaughtered to provide food for the sustenance of the Ka and as a sacrifice to the gods.

The coffin was afterwards lowered down the grave shaft to the secret chamber in which had been placed the image of the dead, his weapons and clothing, his ornaments and perfumes and, perhaps, several articles of furniture. Then the entrance was closed up with stonework. A funeral feast in the antechamber concluded a ceremony which grew more and more elaborate as time went on. Food offerings were afterwards brought at intervals by faithful mourners.

There were two distinct conceptions of the after-life and these became confused in the ages that followed. The sun worshippers believed that the souls of the dead passed to the first division of night, where those who were privileged to utter the magical spells, which could compel the obedience of the gods, were permitted to enter the bark of Ra. In their tombs were placed models of the sun boat.

The Other-World conception of the Osirian cult made more permanent appeal to the Egyptian mind. Heaven is pictured as the "double" of the Delta region, where apparently the conception had its origin. But, before it can be reached, the soul must needs travel a long and weary way which is beset with many perils. The Paradise of Aalu is situated in the west. Bleak and waterless deserts have to be crossed, and these are infested by fierce reptiles; boiling streams also intercept the pilgrim, who is ever in danger of being compelled to turn back.

When the soul sets forth, he takes with him his staff and his weapons, and food for nourishment. He climbs the western mountains and then enters the Kingdom of the Dead. An immense sycamore tree towers before him with great clusters of fruit amidst its luxuriant foliage. As he approaches it a goddess leans out from the trunk as from a window, displaying the upper part of her body. In her hands she holds a tray heaped with cakes and fruit; she has also a pot of clear fresh water. The soul must needs eat of the magic food and drink of the magic water, and thus become a servant of the gods, if he is to proceed farther. If he rejects the hospitality of the tree goddess, he will have to return again to the dark and narrow tomb whence he came, and lead forever there a solitary and joyless existence.

The soul of him who is faithful eats and drinks as desired, and then proceeds on the journey, facing many perils and enduring great trials. Evil spirits and fierce demons compass him about, desiring that he should die a second death and cease to be. A gigantic tortoise rises against him; he must fight against it with his lance; serpents are poised to strike, and they must be overcome. The very insects have venomous stings and must be driven away. But his most formidable enemy is the fierce god Set, the murderer of Osiris, the terror of the good gods and of men, who appears as an enormous red monster, with a head like a camel and the body of a hound, his long and forked tail erect and venomous. Fain would that wrathful demon devour the pilgrim on his way.

When the evil god is overcome and driven back, the soul goes forward until he reaches the bank of a wide river There a magic boat awaits him. The crew consist of silent divinities who give him no aid. But ere he can embark he must needs answer each question which the boat addresses to him. He must know and tell how it is constructed in every part, and if the papyrus roll which was laid beside his mummy contains the secrets of the boat. and the magical formulwhich must also be repeated, he will be ferried over the river and taken to the Osirian kingdom. The sulky "ferryman" is called "Turnface": his face is always turned away from the dead who call to him.

After entering the boat the soul's journey is not near to an end. He desires greatly to join those happy beings who have their dwellings in the blessed fields of Aalu but he must first be tried before Osiris the King of the Dead and Judge of All. The only approach to Paradise is through the Hall of justice, which rises before him stupendous and dark and full of mystery. The gate is shut fast; no man can draw the bolts or enter without permission of the king.

Alone, and trembling with fear, the pilgrim soul stands before the gate with both hands uplifted in adoration. He is beheld by the shining god who is within. Then in a clear, full voice the soul cries out in the deep silence:

Hail, unto thee, O thou great god, thou who art lord of truth!
Lo! I draw nigh to thee now, O my lord, and mine eyes behold thy beauty.
Thee I know, and I know also the two-and-forty gods assembled with thee in the Hall of justice;
They observe all the deeds of the wicked; They devour those who seek to do evil;
They drink the blood of those who are condemned before thee, O just and good king.
Hail! Lord of justice; Thee I know,
I come before thee even now to speak what is true,
I will not utter what is false, O Lord of All.

The soul then recites the ritual confession in which he claims to be guiltless of the offences which are punishable.

I have done no evil against any man.
I have never caused my kinsfolk to be put to death,
I have not caused false witnesses to speak in the Hall of justice.
I have not done that which is hated by the gods.
I am not a worker of wickedness.
I have never oppressed a servant with too much work.
I have not caused men to hunger nor to weep.
I have not been devoid of good works, nor have I acted weakly or with meanness.
I am not a murderer.
I have not conspired to have another put to death.
I have not plotted to make another grieve.
I have not taken away temple offerings.
I have not stinted the food offered to the gods.
I have not despoiled the dead.
I have never committed adultery.
I have not failed to keep myself pure as a priest.
I have not lessened the corn measure.
I have not shortened the hand measure.
I have not tampered with the balance.
I have not deprived children of milk.
I have not stolen cattle from the meadows.
I have not snared the birds consecrated to the gods.
I have not taken fish from holy lakes.
I have not prevented (Nile) water from running (in channels).
I have not turned aside the water.
I have not stolen water from a channel.
I have not put out the fire when it should burn.
I have never kept from the Nine Gods what was their due.
I have not prevented the temple cattle from grazing on my land.
I have not obstructed a god (his image) when he came forth (in a festival procession).

The soul concludes by declaring that he is sinless, and expresses the hope that no ill will befall him in the Hall of Judgment.

The jackal-headed god Anubis, "Opener of the Ways", then strides from the hall and leads the soul by the hand before Osiris, who had heard the confession in silence. No word is uttered as the dead man enters. The King of the Dead sits in his high throne within a dim pavilion. His crown is upon his head. In one hand he holds the crook and in the other the flail. He is the supreme judge of the Dead.. Before him stands the sure balance on which the heart of the dead man will be weighed. Thoth, the recording god, is beside it, and Horus and Maat, goddess of truth and justice, are there also. The guardian of the balance is a monster which is ready to fall upon sinners who are condemned before the great god. Around the dread hall crouch the two-and-forty animal gods who tear the wicked to pieces.

In the tingling silence which prevails, the pilgrim again recites the confession. Osiris makes no comment. Then, quivering with fear, the soul watches the gods deliberately weighing his heart in the balance, while Maat, the goddess of truth and justice, or her symbol, an ostrich feather, occupies the opposite scale.

The trembling soul cries out to his heart not to witness against him. "O heart that was mine," he says, "do not say 'Behold the things he hath done'. Permit me not to be wronged in presence of the great god."

If the heart is found to be neither too heavy nor too light, the dead man is acquitted. Thoth makes known the result of the weighing to Osiris, who then orders the heart to be restored to the man on trial. "He hath won the victory," the King of the Dead exclaims. "Now let him dwell with the spirits and the gods in the fields of Aalu."

THE STEP PYRAMID OF SAKKARA

(Tomb of Zoser, of which Imhotep was the architect)

JUDGEMENT SCENE: WEIGHING THE HEART

The judge is Osiris, behind whom stand Isis and Nepthys. Horus and Anubis lead in two forms of deceased. Thoth makes the record, another form of Anubis adjusts the balance, and the monster waits to destroy deceased if the verdict is unfavorable. On the upper part of the picture deceased salutes some of the two-and-forty gods who surround the Judgement Hall.

From "Book of the Dead" papyrus.

Released and rejoicing, the dead man goes forth to gaze upon the wonders of the Nether World. The divine kingdom is a greater and more glorious Egypt, in which the souls work and hunt and combat against their enemies as in other days. To each man is allotted his task. He must till the soil and reap the grain which grows in abundance and to a great height. The harvest never fails, and famine and sorrow are unknown.

When the soul desires to return to visit familiar scenes upon earth it enters the body of a bird or an animal, or perhaps it blossoms as a flower. It may also visit the tomb as the Ba, and reanimate the mummy and go forth to gaze on scenes which were familiar and dear in other days.

The souls of dead men whom Osiris condemns, because of sins committed upon earth, are subjected to terrible tortures ere they are devoured by the animal gods which crouch, waiting, in the silent and awful Hall of Judgment.

Footnotes

1 According to Celtic folk belief the dead sometimes appear as birds. This idea may be a survival of the transmigration-of-souls conception; the soul passed through many animals before re-entering a human body.
2 The "ceremony of riddance" referred to by Isocrates.
3 This burial custom survived at least as late as the Fifth Dynasty, when mummification was well established.

EGYPTIAN MYTH AND LEGEND

With Historical Narrative, Notes on Race Problems, Comparative Beliefs, etc.

by

Donald Mackenzie

Gresham Publishing Co., London

[1907]

CHAPTER VI

The City of the Elf God

The London of Ancient Egypt--Ptah Chief of Nine Earth Spirits--God of a Military Aristocracy--Palestine Cave--dwellers and Alpine "Broad Heads"--Creation Artificers of Egyptians, Europeans, Indians, and Chinese--Sun Egg and Moon Egg--The Later Ptah--Neith as a Banshee--Sokar, God of the Dead--Earliest Memphite Deity--Ptah and Osiris----Manetho's Folk Tales--A Famous Queen--The First Pyramid.

Now, when there was corn in Egypt "as the sand of the sea", traders from foreign countries crossed the parched deserts and the perilous deep, instructed, like the sons of Jacob, to "get you down thither and buy for us from thence". So wealth and commerce increased in the Nile valley. A high civilization was fostered, and the growing needs of the age caused many industries to flourish.

The business of the country was controlled by the cities which were nursed into prosperity by the wise policy of the Pharaohs. Among these Memphis looms prominently in the history of the early Dynasties. Its ruling deity was, appropriately enough, the artificer god Ptah, for it was not only a commercial but also an important industrial centre; indeed it was the home of the great architects and stone builders whose activities culminated in the erection of the Pyramids, the most sublime achievements in masonry ever accomplished by man.

To-day the ruins of Old Memphis lie buried deep in the sand. The fellah tills the soil and reaps the harvest in season above its once busy streets and stately temples, its clinking workshops and noisy markets. "I have heard the words of its teachers whose sayings are on the lips of men. But where are their dwelling places? Their walls have been cast down and their homes are not, even as though they had never been." Yet the area of this ancient city was equal to that of modern London from Bow to Chelsea and the Thames to Hampstead, and it had a teeming population.

O mighty Memphis, city of "White Walls",
The habitation of eternal Ptah,
Cradle of kings . . . on thee the awful hand
Of Vengeance hath descended. . . . Nevermore
Can bard acclaim thy glory; nevermore
Shall harp, nor flute, nor timbrel, nor the song
Of maids resound within thy ruined halls,
Nor shouts of merriment in thee be heard,
Nor hum of traffic, nor the eager cries
Of merchants in thy markets murmurous;
The silence of the tomb hath fallen on thee,
And thou art faded like a lovely queen,
Whom loveless death hath stricken in the night,
Whose robe is rent, whose beauty is decayed--
And nevermore shall princes from afar
Pay homage to thy greatness, and proclaim
Thy wonders, nor in reverence behold
Thy sanctuary glories . . .

Are thy halls
All empty, and thy streets laid bare
And silent as the soundless wilderness?
O Memphis, mighty Memphis, hath the morn
Broken to find thee not?

Memphis was named after King Pepi, 1 and is called Noph in the Old Testament. Its early Dynastic name was "White Walls", the reference being probably to the fortress erected there soon after the Conquest. Of its royal builder we know little, but his mother, Queen Shesh, enjoyed considerable repute for many centuries afterwards as the inventor of a popular hair wash which is referred to in a surviving medical papyrus.

After Egypt was united under the double crown of the Upper and the Lower Kingdoms, and the Pharaoh became "Lord of the Two Lands", the seat of government remained for a long period at Thinis, in the south. The various nomes, like the present-day states of North America, had each their centres of local administration. Pharaoh's deputies were nobles who owed him allegiance, collected the Imperial taxes, supplied workmen or warriors as desired, and carried out the orders of the Court officials regarding the construction and control of canals. The temple of the nome god adorned the provincial capital.

Ptah, the deity of Memphis, is presented in sharp contrast to the sun god Ra, who was of Asiatic origin, and the deified King Osiris, whose worship was associated with agricultural rites. He was an earth spirit, resembling closely the European elf. The conception was evidently not indigenous, because the god had also a giant form, like the hilltop deities of the mountain peoples (see Chapter XII). He was probably imported by the invaders who constituted the military aristocracy at Memphis in pre-Dynastic times. These may have been the cave-dwellers of Southern Palestine, or tall and muscular "broad heads" of Alpine or Armenoid type who prior to the Conquest appear to have pressed southward from Asia Minor through the highlands of Palestine, and, after settlement, altered somewhat the physical character of the "long heads" of the eastern Delta.

Allowance has to be made for such an infusion in accounting for the new Dynastic type as well as for the influence exercised by the displacement of a great proportion of the mingled tribes of Libyans. The Palestine cave-dwellers may have been partly of Alpine origin.

A people seldom remember their early history, but they rarely forget their tribal beliefs. That being so, the god Ptah is of special interest in dealing with the tribal aspect of mythology. Among all the gods of Egypt his individuality is perhaps the most pronounced. Others became shadowy and vague, as beliefs were fused and new and greater conceptions evolved in the process of time. But Ptah never lost his elfin character, even after he was merged with deities of divergent origin. He was the chief of nine earth spirits (that is, eight and himself added) called Khn the modellers. Statuettes of these represent them as dwarfs, with muscular bodies, bent legs, long arms, big broad heads, and faces of intelligent and even benign expression. Some wear long moustaches, 2 so unlike the shaven or glabrous Egyptians.

At the beginning, according to Memphite belief, Ptah shaped the world and the heavens, assisted by his eight workmen, the dwarfish Khn He was also the creator of mankind, and in Egyptian tombs are found numerous earthenware models of these "elves". who were believed to have had power to reconstruct the decaying bodies of the dead. As their dwellings were underground, they may have also been "artisans of vegetation", like the spirits associated with Tvashtar, the "master workman" of the Rig-Veda hymns and the "black dwarfs" of Teutonic mythology. A particular statuette of Ptah, wearing a tight-fitting cap, suggests the familiar "wonder smith" 3 of the Alpine "broad heads" who were distributed along Asiatic and European mountain ranges from Hindu Kush to Brittany and the British isles and mingled with the archaic Hittites in Asia Minor. The Phnician sailors carried figures of dwarfs in their ships, and worshipped them. They were called "pataikoi". In the Far East a creation artificer who resembles Ptah is Pan Ku, the first Chinese deity, who emerged from a cosmic egg.

Like Ra, Ptah was also believed to have first appeared as an egg, which, according to one of the many folk beliefs of Egypt, was laid by the chaos goose which came to be identified with Seb, the earth god, and afterwards with the combined deities Amon-Ra. Ptah, as the primeval "artificer god", was credited with making "the sun egg" and also "the moon egg", and a bas-relief at Philshows him actively engaged at the work, using his potter's wheel.

A higher and later conception of Ptah 4 represents him as a sublime creator god who has power to call into existence each thing he names. He is the embodiment of mind from which all things emerge, and his ideas take material shape when he gives them expression. In a philosophic poem a Memphite priest eulogizes the great deity as "the mind 5 and tongue of the gods", and even as the creator of other gods as well as of "all people, cattle, and reptiles", the sun, and the habitable world.

Thoth is also credited with similar power, and it is possible that in this connection both these deities were imparted with the attributes of Ra, the sun god.

According to the tradition perpetuated by Manetho, the first temple in Egypt was erected at Memphis, that city of great builders, to the god Ptah at the command of King Mena. It is thus suggested that the town and the god of the ruling caste existed when the Horite sun worshippers moved northward on their campaign of conquest. As has been shown, Mena also gave diplomatic recognition to Neith, the earth goddess of the Libyans, "the green lady" of Egypt, who resembles somewhat the fairy, and especially the banshee, of the Iberians and their Celtic conquerors.

The Ptah worshippers were probably not the founders of Memphis. An earlier deity associated with the city is the dreaded Sokar (Seker). He was a god of the dead, and in the complex mythology of later times his habitation was located in the fifth hour-division of night. 6 When sun worship became general in the Nile valley Sokar was identified with the small winter sun, as Horus was with the large sun of summer. But the winged and three-headed monster god, with serpent body, suffers complete loss of physical identity when merged with the elfin deity of Memphis. Ptah-Sokar is depicted as a dwarf and one of the Khn Another form of Sokar is a hawk, of different aspect to the Horus hawk, which appears perched on the Ra boat at night with a sun disk upon its head. 7

Ptah-Sokar was in time merged with the agricultural Osiris whose spirit passed from Pharaoh to Pharaoh. Ptah-Osiris was depicted as a human-sized mummy, swathed and mute, holding firmly in his hands before him the Osirian dadu (pillar) symbol. The triad, Ptah-Sokar-Osiris, gives us a combined deity who is a creator, a judge of the dead, and a traditional king of Egypt. The influence of the sun cult prevailed when Sokar and Osiris were associated with the worship of Ra.

Memphis, the city of Ptah, ultimately became the capital of United Egypt. It was then at the height of its glory; a great civilization had evolved. Unfortunately, however, we are unable to trace its progress, because the records are exceedingly scanty. Fine workmanship in stone, exquisite pottery, , indicate the advanced character of the times, but it is impossible to construct from these alone an orderly historical narrative. We have also the traditions preserved by Manetho. Much of what he tells us, however, belongs to the domain of folklore. We learn, for instance, that for nearly a fortnight the Nile ran with honey, and that one of the Pharaohs, who was a giant about 9 feet high, was "a most dangerous man". It is impossible to confirm whether a great earthquake occurred in the Delta region, where the ground is said to have yawned and swallowed many of the people, or whether a famine occurred in the reign of one pharaoh and a great plague in that of another, and if King Aha really engaged his leisure moments compiling works on anatomy. The story of a Libyan revolt at a later period may have had foundation in fact, but the explanation that the rebels broke into flight because the moon suddenly attained enormous dimensions shows how myth and history were inextricably intertwined.

Yet Manetho's history contains important material.

His list of early kings is not imaginative, as was once supposed, although there may be occasional inaccuracies. The Palermo Stone, so called because it was carried to the Sicilian town of that name by some unknown curio collector, has inscribed upon it in hieroglyphics the names of several of the early kings and references to notable events which occurred during their reigns. It is one of the little registers which were kept in temples. Many of these, no doubt, existed, and some may yet he brought to light.

Four centuries elapsed after the Conquest ere Memphis became the royal city. We know little, however, regarding the first three hundred years. Two dynasties of Thinite kings ruled over the land. There was a royal residence at Memphis, which was the commercial capital of the country--the marketplace of the northern and southern peoples. Trade flourished and brought the city into contact with foreign commercial centres. It had a growing and cosmopolitan population, and its arts and industries attained a high level of excellence.

The Third Dynasty opens with King Zoser, who reigned at Memphis. He was the monarch for whom the first pyramid was erected. It is situated at Sakkara, in the vicinity of his capital. The kings who reigned prior to him had been entombed at Abydos8 , and the new departure indicates that the supremacy of Memphis was made complete. The administrative, industrial, and religious life of the country was for the time centred there.

Zoser's preference for Memphis had, perhaps, a political bearing. His mother, the wife of Khasekhemui,' the last of the Thinite kings, was probably a daughter of the ruling noble of "White Walls". It was the custom of monarchs to marry the daughters of nome governors, and to give their sons his daughters in marriage also. The aristocracy was thus closely connected with the royal house; indeed the relations between the Pharaoh and his noblemen appear to have been intimate and cordial.

The political marriages, however, were the cause of much jealous rivalry. As the Pharaoh had more than one wife, and princes were numerous, the choice of an heir to the crown was a matter of great political importance. The king named his successor, and in the royal harem there were occasionally plots and counterplots to secure the precedence of one particular prince or another. Sometimes methods of coercion were adopted with the aid of interested noblemen whose prestige would be increased by the selection of a near relative--the son, perhaps, of the princess of their nome. In one interesting papyrus roll which survives there is a record of an abortive plot to secure the succession of a rival to the Pharaoh's favourite son. The ambitious prince was afterwards disposed of. In all probability he was executed along with those concerned in the household rebellion. Addressing his chosen heir, the monarch remarks that "he fought the one he knew, because it was unwise that he should be beside thy majesty".

It may be that these revolts explain the divisions of the lines of early kings into Dynasties. Zoser's personality stands out so strongly that it is evident he was a prince who would brook no rival to the throne. His transference of the seat of power to the city of Ptah suggests, too, that he found his chief support there.

With the political ascendancy of Memphis begins the great Pyramid Age; but ere we make acquaintance with the industrial and commercial life in the city, and survey the great achievements of its architects and builders, we shall deal with the religious conceptions of the people, so that it may be understood why the activities of the age were directed to make such elaborate provision for the protection of the bodies of dead monarchs.

Footnotes

1 The Greek rendering of "Men-nofer", the name of Pepi's pyramid. Another Egyptian name was Hiku-ptah, or, according to Budge, "Het-Ka-Ptah, 'House of the Double of Ptah', from which the Greek name of Egypt is derived".
2 The suggestion that these represented serpents is not supported by anything we know about Ptah worship. There was a winged serpent goddess in the Delta named Uazit. The Greeks called her Buto, and identified her with their Leto.
3 Ptah has been compared to the Greek Hephtos (Vulcan). He was not a fire god. His consort Sekhet symbolized fire and sun heat, but his association with her was arbitrary.
4 Eighteenth Dynasty.
5 The poet says "heart", which was believed by the Egyptians to be the seat of intelligence. At the judgment of the dead the heart is weighed in the balance.
6 See Chapter I.
7 Osiris-Sokar is "the brilliant one", "lord of great fear and trembling", "the mysterious one, he who is unknown to mankind", and "enlightener of those who are in the underworld".--The Burden of Isis, Dennis, p. 52-54 (Hymn to Osiris-Sokar).
8 This king's brick tomb at Abydos contains a limestone chamber, which suggests the employment of the Memphite artisans.

EGYPTIAN MYTH AND LEGEND

With Historical Narrative, Notes on Race Problems, Comparative Beliefs, etc.

by

Donald Mackenzie

Gresham Publishing Co., London

[1907]

CHAPTER V

 

Racial Myths in Egypt and Europe

Worship of Animals--Possessed by Spirits of Good and Evil--Reptiles as Destroyers and Protectors----Pigs of Set and Osiris--The Moon Eater--Horus Solar and Storm Myth--The Devil Pig in Egypt and Scotland--Contrast with Gaulish, Irish, and Norse Beliefs--Animal Conflicts for Mastery of Herd--Love God a Pig--Why Eels were not eaten--The Sacred Bull--Irish and Egyptian Myths--Corn Spirits--The Goose Festival in Europe--The Chaos Egg--Giant's Soul Myth--Nilotic and other Versions--Wild Ass as Symbol of Good and Evil.

ONE of the most interesting phases of Nilotic religion was the worship of animals. Juvenal ridiculed the Egyptians for this particular practice in one of his satires, and the early fathers of the Church regarded it as proof of the folly of pagan religious ideas. Some modern-day apologists, on the other hand, have leapt to the other extreme by suggesting that the ancient philosophers were imbued with a religious respect for life in every form, and professed a pantheistic creed. Our task here, however, is to investigate rather than to justify or condemn ancient Egyptian beliefs. We desire to get, if possible, at the Egyptian point of view. That being so, we must recognize at the outset that we are dealing with a confused mass of religious practices and conceptions of Egyptian and non-Egyptian origin, which accumulated during a vast period of time and were perpetuated as much by custom as by conviction. The average Egyptian of the later Dynasties might have been as little able to account for his superstitious regard for the crocodile or the serpent as is the society lady of to-day to explain her dread of being one of a dinner party of thirteen, or of spilling salt at table; he worshipped animals because they had always been worshipped, and, although originally only certain representatives of a species were held to be sacred, he was not unwilling to show reverence for the species as a whole.

We obtain a clue which helps to explain the origin of animal worship in Egypt in an interesting Nineteenth-Dynasty papyrus preserved in the British Museum. This document contains a calendar in which lucky and unlucky days are detailed in accordance with the ideas of ancient seers. Good luck, we gather, comes from the beneficent deities, and bad luck is caused by the operations of evil spirits. On a particular date demons are let loose, and the peasant is warned not to lead an ox with a rope at any time during the day, lest one of them should enter the animal and cause it to gore him. An animal, therefore, was not feared or worshipped for its own sake, but because it was liable to be possessed by a good or evil spirit.

The difference between good and evil spirits was that the former could be propitiated or bargained with, so that benefits might be obtained, while the latter ever remained insatiable and unwilling to be reconciled. This primitive conception is clearly set forth by Isocrates, the Greek orator, who said: "Those of the gods who are the sources to us of good things have the title of Olympians; those whose department is that of calamities and punishments have harsher titles. To the first class both private persons and states erect altars and temples; the second is not worshipped either with prayers or burnt sacrifices, but in their case we perform ceremonies of riddance".

"Ceremonies" of riddance are, of course, magical ceremonies. It was by magic that the Egyptians warded off the attacks of evil spirits. Ra's journey in the sun bark through the perilous hour-divisions of night was accomplished by the aid of spells which thwarted the demons of evil and darkness in animal or reptile form.

In Egypt both gods and demons might possess the same species of animals or reptiles. The ox might be an incarnation of the friendly Isis, or of the demon which gored the peasant. Serpents and crocodiles were at once the protectors and the enemies of mankind. The dreaded Apep serpent symbolized everything that was evil and antagonistic to human welfare; but the beneficent mother goddess Uazit of Buto, who shielded Horus, was also a serpent, and serpents were worshipped as defenders of households; images of them were hung up for "luck" or protection, as horseshoes are in our own country even at the present day; the serpent amulet was likewise a protective agency., like the serpent stone of the Gauls and the familiar "lucky pig" which is still worn as a charm.

In certain parts of Egypt the crocodile was also worshipped, and was immune from attack; 1 in others it was ruthlessly hunted down. As late as Roman times the people of one nome waged war against those of another because their sacred animals were being slain by the rival religious organization.

Here we touch upon the tribal aspect of animal worship. Certain animals or reptiles were regarded as the protectors of certain districts. A particular animal might be looked upon by one tribe as an incarnation of their deity, and by another as the incarnation of their Satan. The black pig, for instance, was associated by the Egyptians with Set, who was the god of a people who conquered and oppressed them in pre-Dynastic times. Horus is depicted standing on the back of the pig and piercing its head with a lance; its legs and jaws are fettered with chains. But the pig was also a form of Osiris, "the good god".

Set was identified with the Apep serpent of night and storm, and in certain myths the pig takes the place of the serpent. It was the Set pig, for instance, that fed upon the waning moon, which was the left eye of Horus. How his right eye, the sun, was once blinded is related in a Heliopolitan myth. Horus sought, it appears, to equal Ra, and desired to see all things that had been created. Ra delivered him a salutory lesson by saying: "Behold the black pig". Horus looked, and immediately one of his eyes (the sun) was destroyed by a whirlwind of fire. Ra said to the other gods: "The pig will be abominable to Horus". For that reason pigs were never sacrificed to him. 2 Ra restored the injured eye, and created for Horus two horizon brethren who would guard him against thunderstorms and rain.

The Egyptians regarded the pig as an unclean animal. Herodotus relates that if they touched it casually, they at once plunged into water to purify themselves. 3 Swineherds lost caste, and were not admitted to the temples. Pork was never included among the meat offerings to the dead. In Syria the pig was also "taboo". In the Highlands, even in our own day, there survives a strong prejudice against pork, and the black pig is identified with the devil.

On the other hand, the Gauls, who regarded the pig as sacred, did not abstain from pork. Like their kinsmen, the Achns, too, they regarded swineherds as important personages; these could even become kings. The Scandinavian heroes in Valhal feast upon swine's flesh, and the boar was identified with Frey, the corn god. In the Celtic (Irish) Elysium presided over by Dagda, the corn god, as the Egyptian Paradise was presided over by Osiris, there was always "one pig alive and another ready roasted". 4 Dagda's son, Angus, the love god, the Celtic Khonsu, had a herd of swine, and their chief was the inevitable black pig.

In The Golden Bough, Professor Frazer shows that the pig was tabooed because it was at one time a sacred animal identified with Osiris. Once a year, according to Herodotus, pigs were sacrificed in Egypt to the moon and to Osiris. The moon pig was eaten, but the pigs offered to Osiris were slain in front of house doors and given back to the swineherds from whom they were purchased.

Like the serpent and the crocodile, the pig might be either the friend or the enemy of the corn god. At sowing time it rendered service by clearing the soil of obnoxious roots and weeds which retard the growth of crops. When, however, the agriculturists found the--

Snouted wild boar routing tender corn,

they apparently identified it with the enemy of Osiris--it slew the corn god. The boar hunt then ensued as a matter of course. We can understand, therefore, why the Egyptians sacrificed swine to Osiris because, as Plutarch says, "not that which is dear to the gods but that which is contrary is fit to be sacrificed". The solution of the problem may be that at sowing time the spirit of Osiris entered the boar, and that at harvest the animal was possessed by the spirit of Set.

This conclusion leads us back to the primitive conception of the Great Mother Deity. In the archaic Scottish folk tale, which is summarized in our Introduction, she is the enemy of mankind. 5 But her son, the lover of the spirit of summer--he is evidently the prototype of the later love god--is a beneficent giant; he fights against his mother, who separated him from his bride and sought to destroy all life. Ra similarly desired to slay "his enemies", because he created evil as well as good. Seb, the Egyptian earth god, was the father of Osiris, "the good god", and of Set, the devil; they were "brothers". Osiris was a boar, and Set was a boar. The original "battle of the gods" may, therefore, have been the conflict between the two boars for the mastery of the herd--a conflict which also symbolized the warfare between evil and good, winter and summer. Were not the rival forces of Nature created together at the beginning? The progeny of the Great Father, or the Great Mother, included evil demons as well as good gods.

The Greek Adonis was slain by a boar; Osiris was slain by Set, the black boar; the Celtic Diarmid was slain by a boar which was protected by a Hag who appears to be identical with the vengeful and stormy Scottish Earth Mother. The boar was "taboo" to the worshippers of Adonis and Osiris; in Celtic folklore "bonds" are put upon Diarmid not to hunt the boar. Evidently Adonis, Osiris, and Diarmid represented the "good" boars.

These three deities were love gods; the love god was identified with the moon, and the primitive moon spirit was the son of the Great Mother; the Theban Khonsu was the son of Mut; the Nubian Thoth was the son of Tefnut. Now Set, the black boar of evil, devoured the waning moon, and in doing so he devoured his brother Osiris. When the Egyptians, therefore, sacrificed a pig to the moon, and feasted upon it like Set, they ate the god. They did not eat the pig sacrificed to Osiris, because apparently it represented the enemy of the god; they simply slew it, and thus slew Set.

It would appear that there were originally two moon pigs--the "lucky pig" of the waxing moon and the black pig of the waning moon. These were the animal forms of the moon god and of the demon who devoured the moon--the animal form of the love god and the thwarted rebel god; they also symbolized growth and decay--Osiris was growth, and Set symbolized the slaughter of growth: he killed the corn god.

The primitive lunar myth is symbolized in the legend which tells that Set hunted the boar in the Delta marshes. He set out at full moon, just when the conflict between the demon and the lunar deity might be expected to begin, and he found the body of Osiris, which he broke up into fourteen parts--a suggestion of the fourteen phases of lunar decline. We know that Set was the moon-eating pig. The black boar of night therefore hunts, slays, and devours the white boar of the moon. But the generative organ of Osiris is thrown into the river, and is swallowed by a fish: similarly Set flings the wrenched-out "eye" of Horus into the Nile.

Now the fish was sacred in Egypt 6 . It had a symbolic significance; it was a phallic symbol. The Great Mother of Mendes, another form of Isis, is depicted with a fish upon her head. Priests were not permitted to eat fish, and the food which was "taboo" to the priests was originally "taboo" to all the Egyptians. In fact, certain fish were not eaten during the Eighteenth Dynasty and later, and fish were embalmed. Those fish which were included among articles of dietary were brought to the table with fins and tails removed. The pig which was eaten sacrificially once a year had similarly its tall cut off. Once a year, on the ninth day of the month of Thoth, the Egyptians ate fried fish at their house doors: the priests offered up their share by burning them. Certain fish were not eaten by the ancient Britons. The eel is still abhorred in Scotland: it was sacred and tabooed in Egypt also.'

Osiris was worshipped at Memphis in the form of the bull Apis, Egyptian Hapi, which was known to the Greeks as "Serapis", their rendering of Asar-Hapi (Osiris-Apis). This sacred animal was reputed to be of miraculous birth, like the son of the Great Mother deity. "It was begotten", Plutarch was informed, "by a ray of generative light flowing from the moon." "Apis", said Herodotus, "was a young black bull whose mother can have no other offspring." It was known by its marks; it had "on its forehead a white triangular spot, on its back an eagle, a beetle lump under its tongue, while the hair of its tail was double". Plutarch said that "on account of the great resemblance which the Egyptians imagine between Osiris and the moon, its more bright and shining parts being shadowed and obscured by those that are of darker hue, they call the Apis the living image of Osiris". The bull, Herodotus says, was "a fair and beautiful image of the soul of Osiris". Diodorus similarly states that Osiris manifested himself to men through successive ages as Apis. "The soul of Osiris migrated into this animal", he explains.

That this bull represented the animal which obtained mastery of the herd is suggested by the popularity of bull fights at the ancient sports; there are several representations on the ancient tombs of Egyptian peasants, carrying staves, urging bulls to battle one against another. Worshippers appear to have perpetuated the observance of the conflict between the male animals in the mock fights at temples. Herodotus relates that when the votaries of the deity presented themselves at the temple entrance they were armed with staves. Men with staves endeavoured to prevent their admission, and a combat ensued between the two parties, "in which many heads were broken, and, I should suppose," adds Herodotus, "many lives lost, although this the Egyptians positively deny". Apparently Set was the thwarted male animal--that is, the demon with whom the Egyptianized Set (Sutekh) was identified.

The sacred Apis bull might either be allowed to die a natural death, or it was drowned when its age was twenty-eight years--a suggestion of the twenty-eight phases of the moon and the violent death of Osiris. The whole nation mourned for the sacred animal; its body was mummified and laid in a tomb with much ceremony. Mariette, the French archlogist, discovered the Eighteenth-Dynasty tombs of the Memphite bulls in 1851. The sarcophagi which enclosed the bodies weighed about 58 tons each. One tomb which he opened had been undisturbed since the time of the burial, and the footprints of the mourners were discoverable after a lapse of 3000 years. 7

SACRED ANIMALS

top: left to right: Cat (Bast); Urs, with horns; Shrine with Sokar Hawk; Ape (Thoth); Ibis (Thoth).
bottom, left to right: Apis Bull; Fish (Lepidotus); Jackal (Anubis); Snake (form of Uazit); Cat with Kittens (Bast).

FIGURE OF THE APIS BULL, WITH A KING MAKING OFFERINGS
(British Museum)

After the burial the priests set out to search for the successor of the old bull, and there was great rejoicing when one was found; its owner was compensated with generous gifts of gold. In the Anpu-Bata story, which is evidently a version of the Osiris myth, the elder brother is honoured and becomes rich after he delivers the Bata bull to the Pharaoh. It will be noted that the Osiris soul was believed to be in the animal's liver, which was eaten--here we have again the ceremony of eating the god. Before the bull was transferred to its temple it was isolated for forty days, and was seen during that period by women only.

At Heliopolis the soul of Osiris entered the Mnevis bull. This sacred animal was evidently a rival to Apis. Ammianus Marcellinus says that Apis was dedicated to the moon and Mnevis to the sun.

In Upper Egypt the sacred bull was Bakh (Bacis) a form of Mentu; it was ultimately identified with Ra.

The worship of Apis ultimately triumphed, and in Roman times became general all over Egypt.

Like the Osiris boar, the Osiris bull was identified with the corn spirit. But its significance in this regard is not emphasized in the Egyptian texts. That may have been because different tribes regarded different animals as harvest deities. The association of Apis with Ptah is therefore of interest. We have suggested that Ptah was originally worshipped by a people of mountain origin. In the great caves of southern Palestine there survive rude scratchings of cows and bulls, suggesting that this pastoral people venerated their domesticated animals. In Europe the corn spirit was identified with the bull and cow principally by the Hungarians, the Swiss, and the Prussians, and by some of the French, for the "corn bull" was slain at Bordeaux. On the other hand, it may be that in the Irish legend regarding the conflict between the Brown Bull of Ulster and the White-horned Bull of Connaught we have a version of a very ancient myth which was connected with Osiris in Egypt. Both Irish animals were of miraculous birth; their mothers were fairy cows.

Like the Egyptian Anpu-Bata story, the Irish legend is characterized by belief in the transmigration of souls. It relates that the rival bulls were originally swineherds. One served Bodb, the fairy king of Munster, who was a son of Dagda, the Danann corn god; the other served Ochall Ochne, the fairy king of Connaught, the province occupied by the enemies of the beneficent Danann deities. The two herds fought one against another. "Then, the better to carry on their quarrel, they changed themselves into two ravens and fought for a year; next they turned into water monsters, which tore one another for a year in the Suir and a year in the Shannon; then they became human again, and fought as champions; and ended by changing into eels. One of these eels went into the River Cruind in Cualgne in Ulster, where it was swallowed by a cow belonging to Daire of Cualgne; and the other into the spring of Uaran Garad, in Connaught, where it passed into the belly of a cow of Queen Medb's. Thus were born those two famous beasts, the Brown Bull of Ulster and the White-horned Bull of Connaught." 8 The brown bull was victorious in the final conflict; it afterwards went mad, burst its heart with bellowing, and fell dead. In this myth we have the conflict between rival males, suggested in the Osiris-Set boar legend and the mock fights at the Egyptian bull temple.

The sacred cow was identified with Isis, Nepthys, Hathor, and Nut. Isis was also fused with Taurt, the female hippopotamus, who was goddess of maternity and was reputed to be the mother of Osiris. Even the crocodile was associated with the worship of the corn god; in one of the myths this reptile recovers the body of Osiris from the Nile.

Bast, another Great Mother who was regarded as a form of Isis, was identified with the cat, an animal which was extremely popular as a household pet in Egypt. Herodotus relates that when a house went on fire the Egyptians appeared to be occupied with no thought but that of preserving their cats. These animals were prone to leap into the flames, and when a family lost a cat in such circumstances there was universal sorrow. A Roman soldier was once mobbed and slain because he killed a household cat. 9 The cat was identified in France with the corn spirit: the last portion of grain which was reaped was called "the cat's tail". 10

We have referred in the Introduction to the goose which laid the sun egg. Apparently this bird was at one time sacred. Although it was a popular article of diet in ancient Egypt, and was favoured especially by the priests, it was probably eaten chiefly in the winter season. The goose and the duck were sacred in Abyssinia, where the Mediterranean type has been identified in fusion with Semitic, Negroid, and other types. In the Highlands of Scotland the goose was eaten, until recently, on Christmas Day only. Throughout England it was associated with Michaelmas. "If you eat goose at Michaelmas", runs an old saying, "you will never want money all the year round." The bird was evidently identified with the corn spirit. In Shropshire the shearing of the last portion of grain was referred to as "cutting the gander's neck". When all the corn was gathered into a stackyard in Yorkshire an entertainment was given which was called "The Inning Goose". During the reign of Henry IV the French subjects of the English king called the harvest festival the "Harvest Gosling". The Danes had also a goose for supper after harvest.

The sun god Ra, of Egypt, was supposed to have been hatched from the egg which rose from the primordial deep. This belief is reminiscent of the folk tale of the European giant who hid his soul in an egg, as Anpu hid his soul in the blossom of the acacia.

In one Scottish version of the ancient mythical story the giant's soul is in a stump of a tree, a hare, a salmon, a duck, and an egg; in another it is in a bull, a ram, a goose, and an egg. Ptah was credited with making the sun egg which concealed his own soul, or the soul of Ra. So was Khn These artisan gods appear to be of common origin (see Chapter XIV); they became giants in their fusion with the primitive earth god, who was symbolized as a gander, while they were also identified with the ram and the bull. Khnreceived offerings of fish, so that a sacred fish may be added. Anpu's soul passed from the blossom to a bull, and then to a tree. It may be that in these folk tales we have renderings of the primitive myth of a pastoral people which gave origin to the Egyptian belief in the egg associated with Ra, Ptah, and Khn In the Book of the Dead reference is made to the enemies of Ra, "who have cursed that which is in the egg". The pious were wont to declare: "I keep watch over the egg of the Great Cackler" (the chaos goose), or, according to another reading: "I am the egg which is in the Great Cackler" (Budge). Set, the earth deity, was believed to have flown through the air at the beginning in the form of the chaos goose. The Celtic deities likewise appeared to mankind as birds.

The hare was identified with a god of the underworld. Doves and pigeons were sacred; the ibis was an incarnation of Thoth, the hawk of Horus, and the swallow of Isis. The mythical phnix, with wings partly of gold and partly of crimson, was supposed to fly from Arabia to Heliopolis once every five hundred years. It was reputed to spring from the ashes of the parent bird, which thus renewed its youth.

The frog was sacred, and the frog goddess Hekt was a goddess of maternity. Among the gods identified with the ram were Amon and Min and the group of deities resembling Ptah. Anubis was the jackal. Mut, the Theban Great Mother, and the primitive goddess Nekhebat were represented by the vulture. The shrew mouse was sacred to Uazit, who escaped from Set in this form when she was the protector of Horus, son of Isis. The dog-faced ape was a form of Thoth; the lion was a form of Aker, an old, or imported, earth god.

There were two wild asses in Egyptian mythology, and they represented the good and evil principles. One was Set, and the other the sun ass, which was chased by the night serpent. Although the souls of the departed, according to the Book of the Dead, boasted that they drove back the "Eater of the Ass" (the serpent which devoured the sun); they also prayed that they would "smite the ass" (the devil ass) "and crush the serpent". When Set was driven out of Egypt he took flight on the back of the night ass, which was another form of the night serpent. Set was also the Apep serpent and the "roaring serpent", which symbolized the tempest.

Herodotus has recorded that although the number of beasts in ancient Egypt was comparatively small, both those which were wild and those which were tame were regarded as sacred. They were fed upon fish, and ministered to by hereditary lay priests and priestesses. "In the presence of the animals", the Greek historian wrote, "the inhabitants of the cities perform their vows. They address themselves as supplicants to the deity who is believed to be manifested by the animal in whose presence they are. . . . It is a capital offence to kill one of these animals."

Footnotes

1 Snake worshippers in India are careful not to injure or offend a serpent, and believe that "the faithful" are never stung.
2 Evidently because the sun cult was opposed to lunar rites which included the sacrifice of pigs.
3 Before the Greeks sacrificed a young pig, in connection with the mysteries of Demeter and Dionysos, they washed it and themselves in the sea. Plutarch: Vit. Phoc. xxviii.
4 Celtic Myth and Legend, p. 136. This is a tribal phase of pig worship, apparently, of different character to that which obtained in Egypt. It may be that the reverence for the good pig was greater than the hatred of the black and evil pig.
5 Ghosts also were enemies. A dead wife might cause her husband to be stricken with disease. Budge's Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection, vol. ii, p. 211.
6 The Egyptian sacred fish were the Oxyrhinchus, Lepidotus, Latus, and Phagrus.
7 Apis worship was of great antiquity. Reference is made to the Apis priests in the Fourth Dynasty.
8 Celtic Myth and Legend, pp. 164-5.
9 Similarly British soldiers got into trouble recently for shooting sacred pigeons.
10 In Ireland the cat deity was the god Cairbre cinn cait, "of the cat's head". He was a god of the Fir Bolg, the enemies of the Gaulish Danann people.