(a) From the Libyans the Egyptians, in invading their future settlements, presumably borrowed the goddesses Neith and Bast, who at the beginning of Egyptian history play a considerable part, then recede entirely, and come forward once more in the Saitic period (from B.C. 700 onwards).
Bast appears pre-eminently as the local goddess of Bubastis in the Delta, where she had a share in the cult of the principal temple (Naville, Bubastis, London, 1891 ; Festival Hall of Osorkon II., London, 1892). She is portrayed with a cat’s head, and, like all lion- and cat-headed goddesses, is regarded as an embodiment of the sun. She plays no con- siderable part in the mythology.
Neith was thought of as an armed woman, with bow and arrow in her hand. As local goddess of Sais she was well known to the Greeks. In myth- ology she is regarded as the mother of Ra, and then becomes blended with Isis, along with whom she plays a réle in the Osirian festivals, which under the New Empire had one of their centres at Sais. The Libyans of the time of Seti 1. tattooed the ideogram of Neith upon their arms and wove it into their clothes (cf. Mallet, Le cwlte de Neith a& Sais, Paris, 1889; Petrie, Nagada, p. 64).
Amongst deities that were originally Libyan should perhaps be included also the two goddesses Sati and Anukit, who at a later period make their appearance in the cataract district as companions of Chnum (see above). Sati is depicted with the crown of Upper Egypt and the cow’s horns, and is regarded as queen of heaven and of Egypt, queen of all gods, and is compared by the Greeks with Hera, although she has fundamentally nothing in common with her, Anukit wears a feather crown, is regarded above all as mistress of the island of Sehel in the neighbourhood of Phils, and is com- pared with Hestia, but never succeeded in gaining any firm footing in Egypt proper.
(6) Bes and Ta-urt and their companions appear to be of African origin, by which is not meant that we are to think of divinities of a pronounced
RELIGION OF EGYPT RELIGION OF EGYPT 187
negro type. We have to do rather with deities whose acquaintance the Egyptians made through the medium of the tribes on the southern border of their empire, and to whom they left their gro- tesque forms, although these stood in the most glaring opposition to the refined forms of the genuine Egyptian gods, and permanently retained the stamp of their barbarian origin.
Bes is portrayed as a bearded dwarf, with long ears, bandy legs, long and generally bent arms, with a feather crown on his head.’ Behind him hangs down to the ground a long tail, probably that of the eynelurus guttatus, whose name (bes) the god himself bears. Apart from occasional ornaments, he is represented naked, and almost always as of the male sex. It is only rarely that a female form appears beside him. In later times a number of by-forms (Hait, Ahti, Sepd, Ahaui, ete.) take their place by his side. These are at one time identified with him, and at another re- main independent. In the Old Empire he seems to have as yet played no part; in the Middle Empire there is still little mention of him; it is during the New Empire, especially in the Saitie period, that he attains his bloom (cf. Krall in Jahrb. d. Wien. Kunsthist. Samml. ix. 72 ff.; A. Grenfell, PSBA xxiv. 21ff.). He is regarded as a deity who renders aid at the birth of gods and kings, who amuses the newborn babe with his dances and waits upon it, protecting it at the same time from all evil, and especially against witchcraft. He thus becomes one of the most important of the omen-averting deities. At times he is confused with the young sun, and at a later period is thought of also as a pantheistic divinity.
Ta-urt’s embodiment is a female hippopotamus standing upon its hind legs, with thick belly and pendant breasts, and often with a long mane hanging down to the ground. She, too, is ready with her aid at the birth of gods and kings, and in certain localities she is regarded, in her by-form Apet, as mother of Osiris. In representations of the under world she takes her place by the side of the cow-formed Hathor. She appears at the entrance to necropoleis and to the realm of the dead, presumably occupying this position that she may render aid at the new birth of the dead, the resurrection. Her symbol is one of the most fre- quently occurring amulets in tombs belonging to the more recent periods of Egyptian history.
(c) Asiatic, principally Semitic, deities (cf. Meyer, ZDMG xxi. 716ff.; W. Max Miiller, Asien uw. Europa, 311 ff.) found their way into the Egyptian temples under the New Empire, a period during which the Egyptian people was much brought into contact, alike in peace and war, with the ditferent tribes of Western Asia. The principal deities of this class are Baal, Reshpu, Astarte, Anta, and the city goddess of Kadesh. The last named will be dealt with in the same category as the Egyp- tian city goddesses (see below, p. 191*). ;
Baal was worshipped notably in the Ramesside period, and indeed his cult appears to have had its starting-point at the city of Tanis in the eastern Delta, where Ramses II. gave to this god a place even in the chief temple. His name has frequently for its determinative the sacred animal of the god Set, with whom he thus appears to have been identified—a result which would be reached all the more readily because the by-form of Set, namely Sutech, was also regarded elsewhere as god of the Asiatics. No statues of Baal have been discovered in Egyptian temples up till now. ;