The myth itself relates how the sun-god Ra ruled over gods and men. But men observed that he had grown old, his bones had turned into silver, his joints into gold, and his hair into lapis-lazuli. When Ra noticed how men were thus inclined towards rebellion, he secretly summoned the rest of the gods to Heliopolis to take counsel as to counter measures. The gods advised him to send forth his eye, the goddess Sechet (the sun in its consuming strength), against men to destroy them, although the rebels, filled with fear, had ‘already
begun to seek refuge in flight. Ra followed their counsel, and Sechet slaughtered mankind, wading for several nights in the blood of her victims, from Heracleopolis Magna in Middle Egypt to Heliopolis. But Ra quickly repented of having instigated this massacre. Not venturing directly to forbid the goddess to complete the task assigned her, he had recourse to stratagem. He caused beer to be brewed and poured into the blood of the slain. When the goddess saw this next morning, and found the fields flooded with it, she rejoiced, drank the mixture till she was intoxicated and could not recognize men. Thus mankind was rescued; but Ra was dissatisfied with himself, because he had not left their destruction unchecked. He saw in this a token of his weakness, and determined to abdicate his sovereignty voluntarily before a new weakness should overtake him. t first he set out, on the back of the cow of heaven, for the Mediterranean coasts. At this spectacle men were seized with contrition. They besought Ra to re- main with them and destroy his enemies. But the god went on his way, men followed him, and, when it was morning, they came forth with their bows and joined battle with the enemies of the god Ra. Then spake Ra: ‘ Your transgression is forgiven. The slaughter (which ye have wrought on my behalf) compensates the slaughter (which my enemies intended against me).’ In spite, how- ever, of his forgiveness of men, Ra did not con- tinue to dwell with them. He betook himself to higher regions, created the Fields of Peace and the Fields of Aalu, and settled many men there. Then he handed over his sovereignty of the earth to his son Shu (who was likewise a sun-god), called into being a number of sacred animals such as the ibis and the cynocephalus, and charged the earth-god Seb to give heed to the serpents, which must be charmed by means of magical formule.—In these details, which are not ex- plained by the legend itself, some part is played presumably by the recollection of other myths, in which the serpents appeared as opponents of the sun-god, and with which the author assumed an acquaintance on the part of his readers.
ii. THE Gops.—(A) Historical development of the power of particular gods.—(1) We have already remarked that the Egyptian religion was not a unity. Nor did it form a concentrated system any more than the Egyptian State. The latter had. originated in early times from a number of small States, which either peaceably or as the result of conquest had become united under a single ruler, without thereby making a complete surrender of their former independence. To these ancient petty States corresponded the later so- called nomes (Egyp. hesp), of which there were generally reckoned 22 for Upper and 20 for Lower Egypt. ‘The number underwent not in- frequent variations, adjacent nomes being some- times united for administrative purposes, while at other times particular nomes might be par- titioned owing to rights of succession or other causes. Nevertheless, these nomes, especially in Upper Egypt, continued to be the same on the whole from the Pyramid era down to that of the Greeks and Romans.
The nomes were independent from not only a political but a religious point of view. In their principal city stood the temple of the chief god of the nome, and here the conception and the worship of this higher being developed themselves independ- ently of the religious development in other parts of Egypt. The cultus, however, was not confined to this nome god ; worship was offered in his temple to other gods as well. In this way groups were readily formed, a goddess and a son or a larger .
RELIGION OF EGYPT
family being assigned to the god, or the latter was conceived as the supreme deity, with a circle of inferior gods surrounding him. Nor did his cult exclude the worship of other gods in other localities of the same nome or in other temples of the same metropolis. The nome god was simply regarded in general as the tutelary lord who had the first claim upon the inhabitants in all specially import- - ant matters, and, above all, when their common interests were concerned.
(2) The authority of the nome god was not so firmly established but that it might be over- shadowed, even in his own nome, by other deities, although such an experience was relatively rare. Thus the god of the Thinite nome was originally Anher. At a later period, Osiris, the god of the city of Abydos, in the same nome, gained such pre- ponderance that he stepped into the place of Anher in the nome cult as well. In the Thebaid the ever réle appears to have been played at first