500 
NATURE 
[APRIL 14, 1923 

tion, an early and important episode in the liturgy, 
which was celebrated every day at dawn in all Egyptian 
temples (in the first instance, of course, the Heliopolitan 
sun-temple), was the washing or sprinkling of the 
divinity’s (originally the sun-god’s) cultus-image with 
water, in imitation of the sun-god’s supposed daily 
matutinal lustration. 
The Heliopolitan king, the sun-god’s embodiment, 
was, as already stated, his high-priest, and in this 
capacity he entered, or was supposed to enter, the sun- 
temple every day at dawn to celebrate the liturgy. 
Before he entered the god’s presence he had, like every 
other priest, to undergo purification, but in his capacity 
of embodiment of the sun-god he was conceived of as 
reborn as the result of his ceremonial washing, just as 
was his divine prototype. As we shall see, the king 
was also regarded as the son of the sun-god, and was 
thus thought of as rebegotten as well as reborn through 
the agency of the lustral water, this being identified 
with the sun-god’s own efflux, the very efflux with 
which he had brought into being his two children, Shu 
and Tefénet. The king’s lustral washing took place in 
an adjunct of the sun-temple, called the House of the 
Morning, so named on account of the very early hour 
at which this ceremony took place. The king not 
only underwent lustration in this chamber, but he was 
also robed, anointed, and crowned there, invested with 
the royal insignia, and apparently also presented with 
a light repast, after which proceedings he was ready to 
enter the temple to officiate. 
The consort assigned to the Heliopolitan sun-god 
by his priests was Hathor, a goddess who was especially 
associated with music and dancing. The queen, as 
wife of the high-priest of the sun-god, was, in accord- 
ance with Egyptian custom, that god’s high-priestess ; 
moreover as wife of the embodiment of the sun-god she 
was considered to be the god’s earthly wife, and so was 
identified with Hathor. Like her divine prototype she 
was associated with music, and it was her function to 
sing and rattle her sistrum while her husband, the high- 
priest, celebrated the liturgy. 
A notable feature of the worship of Hathor was the 
performances of her musician priestesses, who were 
attached to her temple in large numbers. These per- 
formances consisted in dancing to the accompaniment 
of the rattling of sistra and the beating of single- 
membrane drums. Since Hathor was assigned to the 
sun-god as his wife, musician-priestesses were attached 
to his temple, and their dancing, singing, and playing 
thus became a feature of the sun-cult—eventually of all 
the solarised cults of Egypt. Over these musician- 
priestesses in the provincial temples presided the high- 
priestess, the wife of the high-priest, who, as inscrip- 
tions occurring in several temples explicitly state, was 
regarded as the wife of the god, and was as such identi- 
fied with Hathor—the god himself being identified with 
the sun-god. The musician-priestesses attached to the 
great solar or solarised temple at the capital were, of 
course, presided over by the queen, the earthly counter- 
part of Hathor par excellence. These musician- 
priestesses of Hathor consciously impersonated Hathor 
in their performances, and are actually spoken of as 
Hathors. Thus not only the high-priestess was 
identified with Hathor, but the musician-priestesses 
over whom she presided were designated Hathors also. 
NO. 2789, VOL. 111] 


Since the chief musician-priestess—at the capital the 
queen, or in the provinces the local high-priest’s wife— 
was regarded as the god’s earthly consort, the ordinary 
musician-priestesses were reckoned to be his concubines, 
in which connexion it is interesting to note that the 
Temple of Luxor, which was dedicated to the solarised 
Theban Amin, was known as the Southern Harim of 
Amin ; so it was possibly the headquarters of that 
god’s concubines. 
Owing to the queen holding the position of wife of 
the sun-god, her son, the future king, naturally came to 
be regarded as the actual physical son of that divinity, 
the explanation of this wondrous happening being that 
the god had intercourse with the queen by incorporat- 
ing himself in the reigning Pharaoh. 
A brief description must now be given of an ordinary 
Egyptian temple, and some account of the ideas which’ 
the Egyptians entertained with regard to it, all of which 
will show effectually how preponderating was the influ- 
ence of Heliopolis in all matters religious, and how 
complete was the process of solarisation which Egyptian 
temple-worship and all its accessories had undergone, 
certainly before the end of the Old Kingdom, possibly 
at a much earlier date. 
A great ornamental gateway flanked by two towers, 
commonly called a pylon, admitted to an open court 
surrounded by a colonnade. Behind this court was 
the hypostyle or pillared hall, and behind it again, 
buried in profoundest darkness, lay the sanctuary, 
containing the cultus-image of the divinity to whom 
the temple was dedicated. In adjoining rooms were 
enshrined the images of the co-templar divinities. Yet 
other rooms served as store-chambers for the sacred 
utensils and vestments, or for the performance of 
special ceremonies. 
Owing to the prevailing solar influence, Egyptian 
temples, certainly in early times and often later, were 
orientated east and west, so that the rising sun at the 
equinoxes might light up their dark interiors. Indeed, 
according to the current Egyptian conception, it was 
the sun-god before all others who dwelt in every temple, 
which was regarded as a small replica of heaven itself. 
Thus a favourite description of a temple is that it is 
“like heaven in its interior, while Ré° (the sun-god) 
rises within it.” 
Against the eastern face of either of the above- 
mentioned pylon-towers were erected two or four, 
sometimes even five, tall masts—four to ten in all— 
from the tops of which fluttered white, green, blue, and 
red flags. These towers themselves were equated with 
the two sisters Isis and Nephthys, who were regarded 
as a pair of midwives lifting up the newly-born sun into 
the sky every morning. 
In front of the pylon there generally stood two 
obelisks, one on either side of the gateway. The 
obelisk, or rather the pyramidion on top, was closely 
connected with the sun-cult, being a replica of the 
sacred benben-stone in the temple at Heliopolis. This 
stone was the emblem of the sun-god, one of the forms 
under which he was worshipped, and on it he was said 
to have sat when he begat of himself the god Shu and ~ 
the goddess Tefénet. 
Colossal statues of the royal founder or benefactor 
of the temple were often erected in front of the pylon 
beside the obelisks. Other statues of the king, repre- 

