CHAP. XIIT. SUN AND MOON WORSHIPPED. 289 



which their prsenomens was composed being that 

 of the Sun. In many, too, the phonetic nomen 

 commenced witli the name of Re, as the Remeses 

 and others; and tlie expressions, "hving for ever, 

 like tiie Sun," " the splendid Phre," are common 

 on all obeUsks and dedicatory inscriptions. 



The frequent occurrence of the name of Re, and 

 the great respect paid to the Sun, even in towns 

 where other Deities presided, tend to show the 

 estimation in which this God was held throughout 

 Egypt, and suggest the probability of the early 

 worship of the heavenly bodies, previous to the 

 adaptation of a metaphysical theory to the nature 

 of the Gods. * This, indeed, is the opinion of 

 several ancient writers; though they are wrong 

 in assigning to Osiris and Isis the characters of 

 the Sun and Moon.t Diodorust says, *' The first 

 generation of men in Egypt, contemplating the 

 beauty of the superior world, and admiring with 

 astonishment the frame and order of the universe, 

 imagined that there were two chief Gods, eternal 

 and primary, the Sun and Moon, the first of 

 whom they called Osiris, the other Isis. . . . They 

 held that these Gods governed the whole world, 

 cherishing and increasing all things ; . . . that in 

 their natures they contributed much to the gene- 

 ration of those things ; the one being of a hot and 

 active nature, and the other moist and cold, but 

 both having something of the air. They also said 



* Vide supra, p. 209. f I'kle supra, p. 214:. 



J Diodor. i. 1 1. 



VOL. I. — Second Series. U 



