7.U 



HIEROGLYPHICS (EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY V 



the veil which conceals me ; and the fruit I have pro- 

 duced is the sun.' Jablonski establishes the fact, 

 that the priests of Sais regarded Neith, as the priests 

 of' Memphis and of Thebes regarded Aninion Ctmou- 

 phis, viz., as the metis aterna ac opifex (Pantheon 

 Kvyptiacum, lib. i. cap. 3). To tins spirit was 

 attributed the origin and manner of all existences, 

 and to its decree and* ordination every tiling was 

 referred, as to its cause. To this spirit too, the 

 reader will recollect, was attributed an existence 

 from and through all eternity, and a dwelling in the 

 upper world far above and beyond the vision of men. 

 The correspondence, then, between the two first 

 phrases of the inscription at Sais, and the following 

 passages employed in Scripture to designate the 

 Deity, will appear very striking. fVhich was, 

 and is, and is to come (Rev. iv. 8.). The same 

 yesterday, to-day, and for ever (Heb. xiii. 8.) I am 

 that I am (Exodus iii. 14.) No man hath seen God 

 at any time (John i. 18.). tFJio only hath immortality, 

 iln-i'lling in the light which no man can approach unto; 

 irhnm no man hath seen or can see (1 Tim. vi. 16). 

 While upon this subject, we cannot but notice 

 another description of the Supreme Being analogous 

 to that in Scripture. It occurs in the sacred 

 books of the Hindoos, called the Vedas. Speaking 

 of Vishnoo, the supreme god of the Hindoo mytholo- 

 gy, it is said, ' All which has been, all which is, and 

 all which will be, are in Vishnoo. He illuminates 

 every thing, as the sun illuminates the world.' (See 

 Recherches du Paganisme, by De Sacy, vol. ii. De 

 Triplici Theologid Mysteriisque Commentatto, p. 45.) 

 Amid the gross and materializing views which per- 

 vaded many of the religious systems of the ancient 

 world, it is pleasing to fend some at least recognising 

 the spiritual existence of one Infinite Mind. This 

 seems very evidently to be the case with the system 

 of the Hindoos ; and among the Egyptians, though 

 material gods and goddesses emerged from the sun 

 and moon, the zodiac, and whole planetary system, 

 to throng their mythology ; though they conjectured 

 that various divine personages emanated from Am- 

 mon himself, and this in the gross way of heathenish 

 conceit ; still they had some pure conceptions of a 

 Supreme Deity. Such facts go far to prove some- 

 thing like a religious instinct in man, a nature which, 

 however degraded he may be, implants the convic- 

 tion of an exalted Power, and leads him to express 

 his views of it by some dim and imperfect emblems. 

 But we must proceed to notice other gods of the 

 Egyptian mythology. The god Phtha, whose image 

 Champollion has found always sculptured near the 

 image of Ammon Chnouphis, on the bass-reliefs of 

 Thebes, Ipsamboul, Edfou, Ombos, and Philae, be- 

 longed to the family of Ammon, and was the son of 

 Ammon Chnouphis. He is symbolically represented 

 by a human form with the head of a hawk, by a 

 peculiar cap or head-dress, and sometimes simply by 

 a hawk holding an emblematical head-dress. His 

 functions are thus described by Spineto (p. 129) : 

 ' He was the god to whom the priests attributed the 

 organization of the world, and consequently the in- 

 vention of philosophy, the science which exhibits the 

 laws and conditions of the very nature he had organ- 

 ized. He was considered as the founder of the 

 dynasties of Egypt (in the fabulous age of Egyptian 

 history), and the Pharaohs consecrated to him the 

 royal city of Memphis, the second capital of the 

 empire, where he had a magnificent temple superbly 

 embellished, in which the grand ceremony of the in- 

 auguration or installation of the Egyptian kings was 

 splendidly performed ; and he was also considered as 

 their protector, by the titles they had assumed of 

 Beloved of Phtha, Approved of Phtha, and the like. 

 Under one form, in which Phtha is called Sncari, he 



is connected with the Egyptian Amenti. Phtha was 

 assimilated by the Greeks to their 'H<fa.iffras (Vulcan). 

 Spineto thinks he was ' a very superior being to this 

 blacksmith.' But there is an evident resemblance in 

 their functions. Diodorus Siculus slates, that the 

 Egyptian priests regarded Phtlia as the inventor of 

 fire; and, as lias been already remarked, he was the 

 great artist of the earth. So Vulcan was regarded 

 by the Greeks as the god who presided over fire, and 

 as a great artist, whose forges were situated in vari- 

 ous parts of the earth. Champollion remarks, ' that 

 many passages in ancient authors attest the fact that 

 one of the principal gods in Egypt, who was likened 

 by the Greeks to their 'Hifanrraf, bore the name of 

 Phtha iii the language of Egypt.' Among other evi- 

 dence of this fact, -he cites the Rosetta inscription, 

 and an old Theban Coptic homily, composed by S. 

 Schenouti, which designate 'HQaifTti and Phtha as 

 the same god (Precis, p. 149 151). The divinities 

 whom we have now described, were among the 

 principal of those who inhabited the upper world, 

 and who are ranked in the first class of Egyptian 

 gods. But the Egyptians supposed the earth itself 

 to be subject more directly to the power of the gods 

 who were visible. The most important among these 

 was the sun, which luminary, on account of its being 

 the source of so many blessings, lias, among almost 

 all heathen nations, been worshipped as a god. Its 

 influence in promoting the alternation ot day and 

 night, and the change of seasons, in reanimating 

 nature, and in maturing the products of the earth; its 

 appearance in the heavens, being the most brilliant 

 luminary upon which the eye of man is fastened; 

 all these circumstances led the Egyptians to consider 

 the sun as the deity who presided over the physi- 

 cal universe, and as ' the eye of the world.' One 

 manner in which he was hieroglyphically represented 

 was by a globe, which was usually of a reddish hue., 

 and stood upon the head of a hawk. He was called, 

 in the Egyptian language, Re or Ri, and derived his 

 origin from Phtha, whose son he is often called, and 

 whom he succeeded, according to the priests, in the 

 government of Egypt. ' In consequence of this 

 belief,' says Spineto, ' all the Egyptian kings, from 

 the earliest Pharaohs to the last of the Roman em- 

 perors, adopted, in the legends consecrated to their 

 honour, the pompous titles of offspring of the sun, 

 son of the sun. king like the sun of all inferior and 

 superior regions, and the like. This last title is fully 

 explained in a letter from Champollion, from which 

 we learn that the double destiny of the soul was sym- 

 bolized by means of the march of the sun in the up- 

 per and lower hemispheres. Splendid worship was 

 performed in honour of the sun in Egypt, and H elio- 

 polis (nXjov yre^i;, i. e , city of the sun) was particu- 

 larly consecrated to him. We might exhibit here 

 some analogies between the Re of the Egyptians and 

 the Phoebus or Apollo of the Greeks and Latins. 

 But we must leave these, and also the consideration 

 of other planetary divinities, in order to describe a few 

 more important personages in the Egyptian Pan- 

 theon. Inscriptions are frequently found which con- 

 tain the names of divinities, written both in Egyptian 

 and in Greek. In this form occurs the name of a 

 goddess called Sate, who was assimilated by the 

 Greeks to their H f (the Juno of the Latins). She is 

 a goddess of the first rank, and she is represented 

 as the daughter of the sun, and as partaking with 

 her father in employments that have respect to the 

 physical universe. 'She seems to have been,' says 

 Spineto, ' the protectress of all the Egyptian mon- 

 archs, and especially of the Pharaohs of the eighteenth 

 dynasty a dynasty which reckons among its mem- 

 bers the greatest kings that ever reigned over Egypt; 

 a Mceris, an Amenophis II., an Ousirei, a Ramses 



