Exodus than the XIXth dynasties. Therefore the compilation of 
the Pentateuch must be posterior to the time of Raineses II.; * 
although certain integral portions may be, nay, undoubtedly 
are, infinitely older, and the Ritual of the Dead, which 
dates from the IVth Dynasty, f and the Litanies of the Sun, 
which are found in the Xlith Dynasty, must be the oldest 
theological texts in existence. J There is this most important con- 
sideration, however, — the rubrics and commentaries upon these, 
and the beautiful mystical hymns which form so large a part 
of the ancient hieroglyphic literature, are of a more recent 
period, and were the subject of continual recensions and addi- 
tions; so that while the essential parts of the myth of Horus 
mount up to the period of the Great Pyramid, the oldest of 
Egyptian buildings ; the expositions and adaptations of that 
myth descend as low as to the grand temple of Edfu, which 
was erected by Cleopatra Cocce and Ptolemy Euergetes II., 
and was only completed by Augustus Ctesar. 
I bring before you a collection of facts illustrating points of 
belief dating from the highest antiquity, and I present you 
with a problem which arises from them, to which is added a 
theory, such as it is, in explanation. On my own ipse dixit — I 
a young man, and a still younger scholar — it would be ridiculous 
more than presumptuous to ask you to receive either facts or 
corollaries ; it is to be hoped, therefore, that you will examine 
these materials for yourselves. Indeed, so open to question do 
some of the positions advanced seem to be, and so singular — 
almost dangerously singular — are the inferences which arise 
from them, that if I thought the IIouus Myth would remain 
in obscurity I should certainly not have ventured upon an 
analysis of it now ; but since I well know that that cannot 
be the case, since the results of Egyptian philology and the 
The date of the reign of Rameses II. is fixed by the heliacal rising of the 
dog-star ; so this occurring in his twelfth year, this astronomical cycle is fixed 
for B.C. 1311 (Biot). 
t Cap. lxiv., The, Manifestation to Light, “ The Chapter of Coming Forth 
as the Bay.” This is attributed to the period of King Gaga Maklieru or 
Menkera. — Birch, Bunsen’s Egypt, vol. v. p. 142. 
+ The Solar litanies, or the Litany of Ea, are chiefly found on the 
sarcophagi and on the walls of the tombs of the Ramesside monarchs in the 
Biban el Moluk, and they are therefore of a late period as regards the texts 
which we now possess. They breathe the spirit of a pure Pantheism, Ra 
being regarded as the deity from whom all things came, to whom all things 
return, and in whose essence all mankind are to be absorbed. — See Naville, 
La Litanie du Soleil. Paris, 1876. 
“ From whose eyes mankind proceeeded, 
Of whose mouth are the gods.” — 
Hymn to Amen Ra, Records of the Past, vol. ii. p. 132. 
D 2 
