HIEROGLYPHICS (EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY). 



733 



government, ami the first establishment of the mon- 

 archical government by Menes. From this time com- 

 mences what is generally called the Pharaonic age, 

 which ends with the invasion by Cambyses. This is 

 doubtless the most brilliant period of the Egyptian 

 monarchy, during which Egypt was covered with 

 those magnificent works, which still command our 

 admiration and excite our astonishment ; and, by 

 the wisdom of its institutions and laws, and by the 

 learning of its priests, was rendered the most rich, 

 the most populous, and the most enlightened country 

 in the world. The third epoch embraces nearly 200 

 years, and begins with the overthrowing of the em- 

 pire of the Pharaohs by Cambyses, 529 B. C., and 

 ends at Alexander. The fourth epoch embraces the 

 reign of the Ptolemies. It begins at the death of 

 Alexander, or rather at the elevation of Ptolemy 

 Lagus to the throne of Egypt, 323 B. C., and ends 

 at the death of the famous queen Cleopatra, when 

 that kingdom became a Roman province. At this 

 period, which precedes the birth of our Saviour by 

 two years only, the fifth epoch begins, and continues 

 to the time when, about the middle of the fourth 

 century, the Christian religion having become the 

 religion of the country, the use of hieroglyphics was 

 for ever discontinued, and the Coptic characters were 

 generally adopted." 



We shall now exhibit an outline of Egyptian 

 mythology, taken from an Appendix, by professor 

 Stuart, to the above translation of Greppo. Mr 

 Stuart principally follows Spineto. We give more 

 room to it than to corresponding articles relating to 

 other nations, on account of the high and increasing 

 interest of the subject, and the little knowledge 

 generally possessed respecting it." The origin of 

 the world from a dark primitive chaos, is a dogma 

 belonging not only to almost all the Oriental nations, 

 and to many of the Greek schools, but fully believed 

 by the ancient Egyptians. Mind and matter were 

 supposed by them to have coexisted from all eternity, 

 and it was the influence of mind upon matter, which 

 reduced the latter to form, and brought it forth from 

 darkness to light. The ancient Egyptian philosophers 

 all represent this mind as infinite and eternal; as 

 presiding over all other gods, both spiritual and 

 material ; as having given origin to the world, and 

 as governing and penetrating through all nature. 

 This supreme mind was the Demiurgos of the Egyp- 

 tians, their god Ammon. It would be interesting 

 here to trace out the analogy between the philosophy 

 of the Greeks and Egyptians, about the origin of the 

 world and of the souls of men. But we can only 

 advert, at present, to a few traits. The theory of 

 Orpheus about an immense egg of matter, from 

 which, by the fiery nature of spirit, the world 

 was hatched, was borrowed from the Egyptians, and 

 was carried by him from Egypt into Greece, where it 

 became the basis of the Stoical system of active and 

 passive principles. Again, that belief in the spiritual 

 origin of the soul, which may be traced in much of 

 the philosophy of Greece, sometimes in a pure form, 

 and sometimes more or less adulterated, was also an 

 important dogma of the Egyptians, though by them 

 it was blended with the doctrine of metempsychosis. 

 Jablonski, after collecting strong evidence of this 

 fact from ancient writers, thus describes the views 

 which the Egyptians had of the soul : ' Nempe 

 Anima, secundum ^Egyptios, erat TO ttto, Divinitas, 

 vel Essentia Divina, quse a sede sua veluti delapsa, 

 aliquamdiu per homines et animalia transibat, donee 

 ad pristinum locum rediret.' (Pantheon Egyptiacum, 

 p. 32.) All the animated part of creation being 

 distinguished by sexes, and the Egyptians regarding 

 nature as productive and animated, they were thus 

 led gradually to transfer their notions of gender to 



Ammon, who generated all things. In one point of 

 view, however, they acknowledge both a male arid 

 female principle in this supreme god of their tlu-o- 

 gony. One of the symbols made use of to represent 

 Ammon was the head of a ram, or a ram holding 

 between his horns a circle.* Wherever either of 

 these symbols occurred, this deity was called Nef, 

 Nouv or Chnouphisfi Noub or Chnoubis ; all which 

 appellations are proved, by Champoliion and by M. 

 Letronne, to signify one and the same attribute of 

 Ammon, viz., his male nature. In this form, Spineto 

 remarks, that ' he was considered as one of the mo. 

 difications, or rather an emanation, of the great 

 Demiurgos, the primitive cause of all moral and 

 physical blessings. He was then called the Good 

 Genius; the male origin of all things; the spirit 

 which, by mixing itself in all its parts, animated and 

 perpetuated the world.' Virgil describes him very 

 well in his JEneid, lib. vi. 726 ; 



S/riritus intus alit, totamque infusci per artut 

 Mcns agitat molem, et toto se corpore mitcet. 



He is sometimes symbolically represented by a large 

 serpent, which designates him as the spirit who flows 

 through the whole earth. It is this spirit to which 

 Horapollo refers in the following passage : Ovru 



vttt> aurei; TOU vravrai TO $inxot tffn TYIV/J.B, (Hieroglyph. t 



lib. i. cap. 64.). In this form he is called Agatho- 

 daemon by the Greeks. The female principle in 

 nature was represented by the goddess Neith, another 

 emanation from the Demiurgos. ' This goddess/ 

 says Spineto, ' occupied the superior part of the 

 heavens, inseparable from the first principle, and 

 was considered also as presiding over the moral 

 attributes of the mind. Hence wisdom, philosophy, 

 and military tactics, were departments that had been 

 attributed to her, and this consideration persuaded 

 the Greeks to look upon her as their Minerva, who 

 was regarded as equally the protectress of wise men 

 and warriors.' The similarity between the Egyptian 

 Neith and the Minerva of the Greeks, is indeed very 

 striking, and goes far to prove that the Greeks de- 

 rived their goddess from Egypt. Besides the identity 

 of their offices, both presiding over philosophy and 

 war, the origin of both is similar. The Neith of the 

 Egyptians was an emanation from Ammon, their 

 supreme god ; the Minerva of the Greeks sprung 

 from the brain of Jupiter, the supreme god of the 

 Grecian mythology. According to St Croix, Egyp- 

 tian colonies from Sais carried over the ceremonies 

 of Neith to Athens, where she became the Atfwj of 

 the Greeks (the Minerva of the Latins). At the 

 period when she was introduced into Athens, the 

 partisans of Neptune suffered severe persecution, and 

 Neptune was entirely supplanted by Neith. This 

 fact gave rise to the fable about the contest between 

 this goddess and Neptune. The goddess Neith was 

 symbolically represented by a vulture, which is the 

 usual image of maternity. Her peculiar place of 

 worship was in the city of Sais, where she had mag- 

 nificent temples, one of the propylaeums of which, on 

 account of the enormous size of the stones and co- 

 lossal statues, is said, ' to excel every tiling of the 

 kind before seen in magnificence and grandeur.' 

 The following inscription, in hieroglyphics, upon one 

 of her temples, is very remarkable, both, ' as giving 

 a sublime idea of the creating power of nature,' and 

 as presenting a striking correspondence with the idea 

 given in Scripture of the Supreme Being. It is thus 

 irterpreted by Champoliion: ' / am all that has been, 

 all that is, all that will be. No mortal has ever raised 



" The names of all the divinities whom we shall mention 

 are represented phonetically, figuratively, and symbolically. 

 We shall -elect only now and then from these representations/ 



t ' Chnouphii, in the old Egyptian language, signifies good." 



