178 RELIGION OF EGYPT
been the fashion to attribute to this people now an obscure monotheism, now a professedly pro- found but in reality perfectly unintelligible pan- theism, or some other religious system, and to support such pretensions by sentences of the in- scriptions torn from their context. From the
oint of view of scientific inquiry, the ancient
gyptian religion is made up of a long series of particular religions and separate spheres of ideas, which one has to follow in their development, unconcerned at first with the question which of the various conceptions is the oldest and whence each originated. The time may come when it may be possible to bring a number of the deities into con- nexion with the various elements that gave birth to the Egyptian people of history ; with the Libyan aborigines, the conquering Hamites, and the Semite peaceful immigrants. But at present the materials at our disposal are far too scanty to lead to any certain conclusions, and the hypotheses that have been started about the Egyptian religion are already so numerous that in the interests of the progress of science any multiplying of them is to be deprecated.
(2) The variety of ways in which myth-forming speculation could view one and the same event forces itself at once on our observation when we essay a survey of the most important of the Egyptian myths intended to explain the origin of the world and of gods and men. It will be best to commence our study of the religion of Egypt with an account of these myths, because we can here take account at the same time of a number of fundamental ideas of the ancient Egyptians about religious questions, which exhibit resem- blances to, or differences from, certain classes of notions that prevailed among the Israelites.
In the opinion of the ancient Egyptians, as with other peoples, our world, the heavens and the earth, and the beings that inhabit them, did not exist from the beginning, but were created. Not, indeed, out of nothing, but out of a fluidity which the Egyptians called Nw, and which may be com- pared with the Chaos of the Greeks. While this filled the universe, there was, as a text expresses it, ‘not yet the heaven ; not yet was the earth, not yet were formed the good and the evil serpents.’ Or, as it is put in an inscription in the pyramid of a king belonging to the 6th dynasty (Pepi I. 1. 663f.), z.e. c. 3000 B.C., ‘not yet was the heaven, not yet the earth, men were not, not yet born were the gods, not yet was death.’
(a) In this primeval mass lay hidden the germs of the future world, but no text as yet discovered points to any attempt on the part of the Egyptians to form a clear and harmonious picture of the re- lation of these germs to one another. It is only as to particular points that we have indications. Thus, according to a widely diffused notion, in primeval times the heaven, Nut (thought of as female), reposed in the close embrace of the earth, Seb or Keb (thought of as male), Besides the primeval fluid, Nu, there existed, according to Egyptian ideas, prior to the creation, one deity, who appears sometimes alone as a male god, and at other times falls apart into a male and a female form. This deity calls into existence from Nu the world that is to be. The means employed are very variously described, but they may be conveniently divided into two great categories, namely, acts and words.—Amongst the myths belonging to the first class the most popular is that which describes how the creating deity forced his way between heaven and earth, tore them from their embrace, trod the earth under foot, and raised the heaven on high with his arms. For the most part, it is Shu that appears as the separating deity, but his place is taken at times by Bes (Petrie, Hawara, pl. 2).
RELIGION OF EGYPT
We possess numerous pictures (especially from, the period c. 1500-1000 B.c.), showing, with slight variations of detail, the breaking up of the ancient union. For the most part, the act is represented as just completed. The goddess of heaven, Nut, supports herself on her hands and feet, and so arches herself over the earth-god Seb, who is still falling. A number of other deities are generally to be seen, notably the gods of the Osiris circle. These are regarded as the children sprung from the union of Seb and Nut; they were gradually generated, but first made their appearance at the moment when their parents were torn apart.
Other pictures show a somewhat later scene in the process of creation. We see the earth-god lying wearied on the ground, while the separating god stands over him, holding up the goddess of heaven with his hands. To save himself from fatigue, he has sometimes called assistants to his aid: these either hold up particular portions of the heaven, or even form points of support for the arms of the god himself.—A variant of this legend found it unworthy of the god that he should him- self permanently play the part of an Atlas, and be thus hindered from exercising his power in other ways. Accordingly, we are told how the god erected four bifurcated supports—one each in the north, the south, the east, and the west—to bear the arch of heaven. And, in order to ensure the stability of these supports, upon whose existence the continuance of the earth depended, a deity was set over each to guard it. It is the notion of these supports that underlies the figures of the four pillars which, in some pictures of the separa- tion scene, appear beside the god. The names of the supporting deities are variously given. At times they are the usual deities of the regions of heaven: Horus for the south, Set for the north, Thoth for the west, Septi for the east; at other times the place of these gods is taken by goddesses. But the four supports mark the end of the world; and, when the Pharaoh desires to emphasize the fact that he is the lord of all lands, he declares that he rules ‘to the supports of the heaven.’