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Religion of the Ancient Egyptians

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Religion of the Ancient Egyptians : RELIGION OF THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. ALFRED WIEDEMANN, Ph.D. Professor in the University of Bonn. AUTHOR OF "aegyptische geschichte," " herodot's zweites buch, "ancient EGYPTIAN DOCTRINE OF IMMORTALITY," ETC. WITH SEVENTY-THREE ILLUSTRATIONS FROM THE MONUMENTS. LONDON H. GREVEL & CO., 33, KING STREET, COVENT GARDEN, W.C. 1897. Printed by Hazell, Watson, & Viney, Ld., London and Aylesbury. PREFACE. Y7 GYPT stands pre-eminent among all the nations -*—^ of antiquity as the land in which every civic and public interest was dominated by religion. The great prominence of the gods in the known texts is doubtless in part due to the fact that temples and tombs are the chief remains in the country, and that it is from these sources that most of the documents in question have come down to us. Yet even when objects which had been intended for secular use only are discovered, they generally prove to be in some way or other connected with the worship of the higher powers ; and the assertion of Herodotus as to the exceptional piety of the Egyptians is fully ratified by the results of modern research. In Pagan times this singular national devoutness of a people regarded as worthy of pecu- liar reverence on account of their extreme antiquity moved Greek and Roman writers to devote more attention to the Egyptian religion than to that of vi PREFACE. any other nation : hence It is that we find much valuable information on this subject in the works of the classical writers, although we cannot utilize it for scientific purposes as it stands. When the fathers of the Church and the Christian apologists came to write of the doctrines of the Egyptian re- ligion, they singled out from them all that was most foolish and repulsive, in accordance with their object of pointing out the absurdities in which paganism necessarily involved even the most cultured of peoples. The classical writers, on the other hand, showed as little critical discrimination in this as in most other fields of scientific inquiry : they identified their own Greek and Roman divinities with those which they found in the Valley of the Nile, lightly transferred Greek doctrines into Egyptian teaching, and ascribed to the latter systems of religious belief really of their own, devising, although the principal deities figuring in them were invested with Egyptian names. Thus it is that Plutarch's interesting work on I sis and Osiris^ is in fact an exposition of the author's own conception of the universe, notwith- standing the large proportion of genuine Egyptian material which it contains. And though we find the names of Egyptian gods in the works of the ' TTfpt "IcTibos KOL 'Oo-t'piSof—of which the best edition is that of Parthey, Berlin, 1850. PREFACE. Vll Neo-Platonlsts and of the Gnostics, everything is interpreted in accordance with the new philosophy, and the Ancient Egyptian classification is entirely changed. But, in spite of these drawbacks, the information as to the Egyptian religion contained in the works of the Greek and Latin writers is both valuable and extensive,^ and it is to these that we are indebted for the preservation of many doctrines as to which the monuments are silent, but which are nevertheless undoubtedly of Ancient Egyptian origin. By the decipherment of the hieroglyphics materials fuller and unsophisticated were made accessible to students of the Egyptian religion, and, struck by the wealth of them, Champollion at once began to publish his Panthdon Egyptie^i (Paris, 1823-31), which, like many another work of that great scholar, was brought to a standstill by his early death. Wilkinson subsequently gave considerable attention to the same subject, and in the last volume of his Manjters and Ctcsfoms {London, 1841) we have an illustrated catalogue of Egyptian deities that is still valuable for reference, although Lanzone's Dizio- nario di Mitologia cgizia (Turin, 1881-6), with ' The best collection of these references is in JABLONSKI, Pantheo7iAegyj)tiorum, YvdsiMoTt, 1750-52. Vrictiakd's Analysts of the Egyptian Mythology, London, 1819, is less satisfactory though frequently quoted. , viii PREFACE. respect to both the number of deities figured and the specification of texts referring to them, has thrown into the shade all similar works by his predecessors. As regards Egyptian dogma, the monotheistic, or rather henotheistic, factor has been emphasized by E. de Rouge,^ Pierret,- and Le Page Renouf ;^ Tiele,* and, latterly, E. Meyer,^ have endeavoured ^ to trace the evolution of the religion, and Brugsch to prove that the Egyptian religion was a coherent system of belief, corresponding somewhat to that imagined by Plutarch. But far weightier than any of these writings are the essays which Maspero has devoted to the subject, and which are now for the most part collected in his Iitudes de Mythologie et de Religion (Paris, 1893). Oxi^ of these essays is a criticism of Brugsch's treatise on the mythology, and is emphatically outspoken in condemnation of that distinguished scholar's point of view. A multi- tude of works of a more or less popular character by writers who draw all their information at second- hand need not here be noticed. If to one who knows ^ See his articles on this subject in the Revue Archeologique N.S., I. 2 Essai stcr la myikologze Egyptiemie, Paris, 1879. ^ Lectures on the Origin and Growth of Religion, London, 1880. ^ Histoire comparative des anciens religions, Paris, 1882. * Geschichte Aegy;ptens, Berlin, 1887. ^ Religion und Mythologie der alien Aegypter, Lti^zig, 1885-90. PREFACE. the language there is imminent risk of reading his own ideas into the reHgious texts with which he is deahng, this danger is immeasurably increased for such as are unable to study the texts in the original, and who are thus thrown on translations for their authorities. Too easily they find statements in support of their theories when simply misled by some obscure rendering of the translator. It is especially true of Egypt that no original work in the study of the religion is possible without a knowledge of the language. Moreover many of the most important religious texts are still un- translated, or can be found only in obsolete and untrustworthy versions. The present work is based throughout on original texts, of which the most significant passages are rendered as literally as possible in order that the reader may test the justice of the conclusions drawn from them. And since, owing to the longwindedness of Egyptian scribes, it is altogether impracticable to give translations in full, references to complete publications of the inscriptions and papyri from which they are made will be found in the footnotes. The work makes no pretence to completeness in the sense of noting every single demon among the thousands which figure in Egyptian mythology, and each local myth to which any odd reference might X PREFACE. be found. Such a scheme would have resulted in a mere assemblage of names without connotation ; of titles with no distinguishable meaning ; of frag- mentary myths of which in the present state of Egyptology no clear account can possibly be given. Neither does the writer wish to enter into any discussion of current hypotheses as to the inner significance and origin of the Egyptian religion, nor yet to propound any views of his own on the subject : he is convinced that, however easy it may be to make assertions on these points, there is indeed little that can be proved with regard to them. His aim is a modest one : avoiding any attempt to interpret or to systematize, he has endeavoured to set before the reader the principal deities, myths, religious ideas and doctrines as they are to be found in the texts, more especially dwelling on such as have important bearings on the history of religion. The friendly reception accorded to the German edition of this book has testified to a certain demand on the part of the public for some account of Egyptian beliefs which should aim at establishing the facts of the case rather than at furnishing material in favour of any theory as to the philo- sophy or genesis of religion. The book has been carefully revised and aug- mented for the English edition, and it is hoped that PREFACE. xi it has thereby gained throughout both in clearness and in fulness of statement. This edition has, moreover, the advantage of illustrations, and these will convey to the reader a better idea of the forms attributed by the Egyptians to their gods than any mere description can do. Finally, the addition of a full Index will facilitate reference, especially as regards such deities as may have received but isolated or incidental notice in the following pages. In conclusion, I would here express my warmest thanks to my translator—who also recently placed before the English public my little treatise on The Ancient Egyptian Doctrine of the Immortality of the Soul— for the care and pains ungrudgingly bestowed upon the work. ALFRED WIEDEMANN. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. PAGE INTRODUCTION I CHAPTER II. SUN WORSHIP 14 CHAPTER III SOLAR MYTHS 5^ CHAPTER IV. THE PASSAGE OF THE SUN THROUGH THE UNDER- WORLD 81 CHAPTER V. THE CHIEF DEITIES IO3 CHAPTER VI. FOREIGN DEITIES 148 XIV CONTENTS. CHAPTER VII. PAGE THE WORSHIP OF ANIMALS I72 CHAPTER Vni. OSIRIS AND HIS CYCLE 20/ CHAPTER IX. THE OSIRIAN DOCTRINE OF IMMORTALITY . 234 CHAPTER X. MAGIC AND SORCERY 261 CHAPTER XL AMULETS 284 INDEX 309 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. FIG. PAGE LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. FIG. RELIGION OF THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION. ^ ^HE attempt has often been made to hit off a national I -*- characteristic in some apt epithet ; the Romans have been denominated " brave," the Israelites " religious," the Assyrians "cruel." In like manner the Egyptians might be called " conservative " in the first and strictest sense of the word.
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