SEYFFARTH EGYPTIAN THEOLOGY. 57 



phets) before the sun, and the moon, and all the hosts of heaven, 

 whom they have loved, and whom they have served, and after 

 whom they have walked, and whom they have sought, and whom 

 they have worshipped." — Herodotus narrates that the twelve 

 great gods originated from the planetary gods about 1 7,000 years 

 (i.e. notoriously months— Prod. Plat. Tim. i. 31 ; Lactant. Jnst. 

 ii. 131; Diodor. i. 26 ; Plin. H. N. vii. 49; Plut. Numa, 18; 

 Horapollo, etc.) previous to Amos (600 B.C.), consequently about 

 2017 years B.C. (Comp. my "Grundsiitze der Mythologie," etc., 

 Leip. 1834, p. 21.) Since, then, all pagan religions originated 

 from the same source, and were of the same nature, we have the 

 privilege to determine the significations of the Egyptian deities 

 by the help of Greek and Roman ones. The latter were, as is 

 well known, the seven planets — Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sun, Ve- 

 nus, Mercury, Moon — being visible with the naked eye; and, 

 consequently, an Egyptian god, compared by ancient authors 

 with one of the Roman and Greek planetary gods, must of neces- 

 sity represent the same planetary god. 



This result is confirmed by many explicit enunciations of old. 

 For Aristode (Met. xi. 8, p. 207) testifies : "It is reported by the 

 ancients, or rather by the very ancients, that the deities were the 

 planets and the constellations." — The Egyptian priest Chteremon 

 (Jambl. Myst. .Eg. 7) asserts: ".-Egyptii non alios ponunt deos 

 praetervulgo dictos planetasatque Zodiaci signa." — Tacitus (H.iv. 

 5): "Saturni stella," says he, "e septem sideribus, quis mortales 

 reguntur, praecipua potestate." — Herodotus and Diodorus and 

 Plutarch in many places testify that the Egyptian deities were the 

 seven Cabiri, i.e. according to the Hebrew "1-^3 (kebir, potens), 

 the seven planets, and next to them the twelve signs of the Zodiac. 

 — Porphyrins (Abst. iv. § 9) informs us that the sacred animals 

 of the Egyptian symbolized Dei in res omnes potentiam^ quam 

 singuli deorum declarant. This passage is illustrated by Clem- 

 ent of Alexandria (Protr. p. 14), who says: "Septem sunt dii 

 planetje, octavus (shmun, the earth), qui ex his omnibus constat, 

 mundus." To-wit, the ancient astronomers report that all, both 

 invisible and visible, objects were distributed to the seven planets 

 in that way that each planet received all things being similar to 

 his true or imaginary nature, and hence the objects referred to a 

 certain planet were termed the "ducatus" of the same planet. 



