In the train of the Nile appear a number of forms which embody the blessings dispensed by him. Thus we have the god of provisions, Ka (not to be confounded with the soul-form a), who is also called the father of the gods; the gods Hu, T’efa, and Resef, which stand for abundance and nourishment; the goddess of corn, Nepera, and the serpent-headed goddess of the harvest, Rennut.
(ec) The worship of animals (cf. Wiedemann, ‘Culte des animaux’ in the Muséon, viii. 211 ff, 309 ff. ; Mél. de Harlez, 372 ff. ; Herodot’s Zweites Buch, 271 ff.) has been regarded from ancient times as one of the most remarkable features of Egyptian religion. In discussing this subject we must dis- tinguish between the Divine honours paid to cer- tain individual animals, and the high regard for whole classes of animals sacred to certain gods. In the latter instance it was supposed that cer- tain animals were specially dear to certain gods, whether because they were fond of incorporating themselves in these, or for some other mythological reason. The animals in question must not be hurt or killed, in their lifetime they must be fed, after their death they were frequently embalmed and buried, but were not worshipped. The pheno- menon with which we are dealing may be com- pared with the high regard for certain animals shown in other lands: for instance, at the present day, for the stork in N. Germany ; it is not animal worship, properly so called. Almost every species of animal found in Egypt is included in_ this category of sacred animals (see list in rae Plutarch, de Js. 261 ff.), but regard for a particular species is commonly confined to particular nomes or districts, and one nome had no seruple about killing and eating the sacred animals of another.
The case is quite different with individual animals that ranked as Divine. In them a par- ticular god embodies himself when he descends to
190 RELIGION OF EGYPT
earth, and lives on in this incarnation in the temple. The cult is then occupied essentially with this god-animal, which is duly supplied with food, drink, adornments, etc. We learn this, above all, from the classical writers ; the inscrip- tions in such cases always speak of the god him- self. These animal deities were immortal in the sense that, whenever the animal incorporation died, a fresh embodiment of the god in an animal of the same species immediately took place. Moreover, the death of the first embodiment was not a com. plete one ; its immortal soul passed, like that of man, as Osiris, into the world beyond. Hence the Osiris dirge was raised for the animal, and it was solemnly interred, sometimes in an isolated tomb, sometimes in a spot where there were numerous such graves of animals. Besides real animals, we encounter, amongst these embodiments of deity, certain fabulous creatures. Pre-eminent amonest these is the phaniz, an embodiment of Ra. The Egyptians came to look upon these fancied forms as actually existing creatures, like the sphinx, the griffin, ete., which were supposed to inhabit. the desert (ef. ¢.g. Leps. Denkm. ii. 131).
The most important of the god-animals, or at least the most frequently mentioned in the classi- cal authors, are the following :—
Apis (Egyp. Hapi)—a bull in the form of which Ptah of Memphis embodied himself, and whose worship is attested from the 4th dynasty down to the time of the emperor Julian. ‘This animal was believed to be engendered by a moonbeam ; the cow which gave birth to him shared in the veneration paid him. He was recognized by a number of marks, about whose appearance tradi- tion varies as to details. Solemnly introduced into the temple, the animal gave oracles, partly directly, and partly through his attendants. His death occasioned general mourning; his place of burial, from the middle of the 18th dynasty, was a rock-cut catacomb, the so-called Serapeum, in the middle of the necropolis of Memphis. The soul of the animal passed as Osiris-Apis into the world beyond, and this double form became blended, in the minds of the Greeks who were settled in Egypt, with the notions of Pluto and Asclepios.
hus arose the hybrid god Sarapis or Serapis, whose cult at the beginning of the Christian era was diffused over the whole of the Roman Empire (cf. e.g. Lafaye, Hist. du culte des divinités d’ Alew- andre, Paris, 1884),
Mnevis—an incorporation of Ra as a bull, at Heliopolis.
Bacis—a ull form of Ra (Mont), at Her- monthis.
Suchos—a crocodile embodiment of Sebak in a lake in the Fayum, which likewise gave oracles, and was interred in the eatacombs of the laby- rinth. :
A ram form belonged, amongst others, to Osiris at Mendes, and Amon-Ra at Thebes. Thoth had the form of an ibis at Hermopolis Magna, and, it would appear, also in a temple at Memphis, where the ibis was regarded as a sacred animal, and buried accordingly.
The Pheenix (enn), in earlier times conceived of as a heron, in later also as an eagle, was an embodiment of Ra, especially as the morning sun, in a temple at Heliopolis (cf. Wiedemann, Aegyp. Ztschr. 1878, p. 89 ff), but worshipped also in other places in Egypt, and one of the forms of the blessed dead, whose resurrection was guaranteed by that of the Phenix itself,