Egypt, though they still leave ea traces in the forms of provinciall Khem, and Kneph belong to the and Ra to Lower Egypt. E the analysis, we find the wor primeval god in human fo) est in the Thebaid, and most parfamily Ammon. That of Keph (the frequent in Ethiopia, to the south of E of Neith and a probably Heliopolis. Ptah, lastly, is the int of Upper and Lower Egypt. The pla at Memphis, but its builder was Upper Egypt, Menes of This. Now distinct representations of Pah, th and the rude Pataikos form. They out being intermixed. The Temp still the naked, unformed Pataik worshipped in all Egypt, is repe with the skull-cap, the sceptres a We can hardly be wrong the former the primeval god of the latter, as the Upper g idea of the same god, introd for this form of Plan deities of Upper Egypt We think it indispe these historical distin system of the Egypt various provincial this on

ties, our

narrower

ate these ach from connexion Order is, trumental The conOrder, and from their The idea he feeling of as a material is not purely pletely terres

and the primeval direct proof of the however, has quoted iseum, where Khunsu son of Ammon." It is ered by General Vyse in as Troicus), of the date of

moon-god, but, as Birch 268 has a double form: with the hawkafter Wilkinson (Pl. 46.), or as ith the Horus lock of the young

in those of its neighbours. The case is precisely the same with the formation of a national language out of the provincial elements of the intellectual energies of one and the same people. Admitting a common starting-point, and the feeling of a common origin, the identity of the object of intellectual impulses must necessarily produce a similar whole, the parts of which are reciprocally, although not intentionally, the supplements of each other. Thus it was with the Old Egyptians. Their language shows that all the provinces comprised in the duality of Upper and Lower Egypt contained the same people, whose mental development was, therefore, necessarily of a similar character. Thus the idea which pervaded the whole nation was stamped with a provincial impress, till by degrees the most powerful of these conformations ejected the others, after Menes had founded the united empire of Egypt. This, however, could only happen in consequence of a primitive unity, a common foundation. Thus only could every Egyptian find in every other Egyptian mind his own individual sensations. Upon a closer investigation, therefore, the demonstrability of the various local origins of these mythological forms is only a proof of the force and unity of the idea which was working in the minds of the people. Herodotus expressly states that of their gods, was sacred, taken twelve months of the solar year. of his first Order, is certainly not an astronomical one, and may be partly conventional. Its constituent parts, also, may have been different in different provinces.

twelve, the number probably from the Eight, the number

Counting Ament, Mut, and Anuke as one, and distinguishing the two representations of Ptah, which are totally different, we can trace ten separate individualisations. We might also count twelve here. At all events, twelve is the number assigned by Herodotus to the divinities of the second Order, which we now proceed to explain.

B.

THE TWELVE GODS OF THE SECOND ORDER.

IN giving an historical exposition of these deities, our remarks can be condensed within a much narrower compass. All we have to do is so to illustrate these twelve gods, as clearly to show the descent of each from one of the first Order, and the internal connexion amongst them all. The character of the whole Order is, derivative, secondary, and at the same time instrumental existence, analogous to that of the Cabiri. The connexion between Helios, the last of the first Order, and the deities contained in it, is quite obvious from their planetary or more generally astral import. The idea of divinity is considerably mixed up with the feeling of the power of nature in this Order, and has a material tendency; the result of which is, that it is not purely cosmogonic like the first, and yet not completely terrestrial or psychological like the third.

A. The Child of Ammon.

I. KHUNSU (Khunsu), Chōns.

The frequent junction of Khunsu and the primeval god on the monuments of Thebes is direct proof of the connexion with Ammon. Birch, however, has quoted an inscription in the British Museum, where Khunsu is expressly called "the eldest son of Ammon." It is also found on a tablet discovered by General Vyse in the quarries of Tourah (Mons Troicus), of the date of the 18th Dynasty.

The type is that of a moon-god, but, as Birch 268 has correctly remarked, in a double form: with the hawkhead, as we give it after Wilkinson (Pl. 46.), or as a youthful Ptah, with the Horus lock of the young

269 Gallery, p. 8.

gods.269 In one representation 270, the subject of which is not quite certain, he is lion-headed. Another, in which type Khunsu is holding the palm-branch of the Panegyries, and, like the Egyptian Hermes, is marking the years with the stylus, exhibits an approach towards the highest moon-god, Thoth. Here he is called Chunsu nefru hep.t, the good of the offering, or, the best of the offered: also "the God of two names" (sarcophagus of the queen of Amasis). He bears the same title when represented as Ptah, where he has the flagellum and sceptre of Osiris, as god of the Lower World. He is often found with Amun and Mut, also with Tefnu, the lioness-headed goddess. He appears very rarely to have had a shrine devoted expressly to himself.

The name is only found written in phonetic hieroglyphics. Birch reminds us of the Coptic word Chons, to chase, strength, power.

It is easy to prove that this is the same god whom the Greeks considered the Egyptian Hercules. According to all the ancient lexicographers, the Egyptian name of Hercules was Xóvs. This explains the translations of Eratosthenes: "Hercules, Harpocrates, Semphucrates, Sempsos (instead of Pemphos), the Heraclide." The name Semphucrates indicates a connexion, in later times, between Chōns and Horus. For Chunsu-pa-xrut corresponds to Her-pa-xrut, i. e. they are both a type of the youthful god, the sun-god, for which reason they have both the Horus or infantine lock. In a myth, the date of which, however, cannot be proved, the Egyptian Hercules appears as the sun-god. He entreated permission to see Zeus (Ammon, Ammun-ra), who revealed himself to him in the guise of a ram. then retired into Libya, where he was slain, precisely as Horus was in the old myth. As Thoth travels round with the moon, so does Hercules with the sun

He

269 Comp. Wilkinson, Mat. Hier. xxiv. Incorrectly spelled in Champollion's Pantheon, Ooh-en-sou, New Moon.

270 Wilk. Mat. Hier. x. B.

(Plut. c. 4.), and Chōns had the same connexion with the moon, as the sacred bull of Osiris, the moon-bull Apis, had with the sign of the period of twenty-eight years.

According to Macrobius 271 the worship of Hercules was primeval among the Egyptians. He makes him the slayer of the Giants or rebels (see example from the Ritual, given above, p. 294.). Herodotus expressly states that he belonged to the twelve gods of the second Order. All these combinations constitute the character of a mediatorial, subsidiary god, who, in his development, sometimes approaches Horus, sometimes Thoth.

B. The Child of Kneph (?).

II. TET, Tet, Thot, Thōyth, Hermes.

Tet, written with the Ibis and the letter T, which has the sign of reduplication after it, in Coptic, Thōut, in Greek Thoth, is the most important of all the Cabiri. His sign is the Ibis; and his name, to judge from the Coptic, may be connected with the Egyptian root for "word (λóyos)."* He is the scribe of the gods, and called Lord of the Divine Words," "the Scribe of Truth," "the Great-Great" (twice great), "the guardian of the pure souls in the Hall of the two Truths "272 (on account of his signing the sentences on the souls of the dead), "the self-created, never born"*; lastly, "the Lord of Schmun" (Hermopolis), literally, "the Lord of the Eighth Region." This reminds us of the well-known Cabir, Esmun, of Phœnicia and Samothrace, the eighth brother of the seven sons of Sydyk, the god with the eight rays.273 He is the god of Ses or Sesen, "the eighth region," and of Oshmunain 274, Hermopolis

271 Saturn. i. 20.

272 Lepsius, Todtenbuch, preface.

* On a tablet, No. 551. in the British Museum, of the age of the 18th Dynasty: cheper tesf nen? mesut. f. — B.

273 Gesen. Mon. Phon. Pl. 39. Movers, Phoenicians, p. 527. seqq. 274 Champ. l'Egypte sous les Pharaons, i. 292. Ros. Mon. del Culto, x. 2.