EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY. | 30 
Jaunched into existence, with the privilege either to live in heaven or 
descend down to earth. If the latter be its choice, it is made to traverse the 
Zodiac until it reaches the sign of the Lion, the gate to corporeal existence, 
through which it goes down to the earth in the sign of Cancer, where it 
receives a human body and then is purified. After 3,000 years it reaches 
again in Aries the confines of the region where the celestial beings dwell. 
Here it is compelled to wait and wander about for three days, before it is 
permitted to enter these abodes of bliss. 
These are the things which are taught to the people, but the priests had 
mysteries where lessons were imparted far different from the religious 
instruction given to the people, but they were carefully concealed from the 
uninitiated. The mythology which the people considered as literally true 
was to the priest only a symbolic language for great truths expressed in 
figures, and the names of the gods with their mythic histories conveyed to 
them a meaning never suspected by the rest of their countrymen. But 
they were rigid in enforcing all the rites and ceremonies of the external 
worship, and inculcated a profound reverence for the creed as taught, in 
order to sustain their authority and power over the people. 
2. Spectan MytHonoey. 
1. Myrus anp Symeors. Having given an outline of the gods of the 
Egyptians, we will now examine the leading features of the principal deities 
and the myths appertaining to their history. The first of these deities, we 
have already said, was Amun or Ammon; he was the god above all gods, 
the infinite and eternal, the source of all life and being, from whom every 
blessing came, and who was too holy to be named by any one except the 
priests. We have already referred to his representation in Egypt. In 
Nubia we find him represented, as in pl. 8, jig. 7, seated upon a throne, 
with the war-club and key to the Nile in his right hand and the left raised 
as if in benediction. In Elephanta he is found represented, as in fig. 17, 
with the Nile key in his hand, standing between Oszris and Zs¢s, who join 
their hands behind him as a sign of their intimate union. 
Kneph, the creator of Osiris, is represented (pl. 9, jig. 1), seated, and 
with his hands stretched out as if about to create; his head is ornamented 
with rams’ horns. On pil. 8, jig. 8, we give his likeness as Kneph Mendes, 
resembling that of the Pan of the Greeks. On pl. 10, jig. 18, is a copy of 
a coin upon which he is represented as a serpent called Agathodemon, the 
good spirit The harmless serpent, particularly that of Thebes, was so 
called by the Greeks because they used it as a figure of the benevolent 
power of God, and this name was therefore also given to Kneph Mendes. 
Peculiar characteristics of the serpent representing him are also the hawk’s 
head, and the swollen and erect body, and particularly the ornament upon 
the head, the highest mark of distinction. The ears and poppies with which he 
is surrounded are symbols of the blessings bestowed by this benevolent deity. 
Osiris, who is next in rank, is the chief of the three highest deities to 
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